BL  85  .F3  1905 

Farnell,  Lewis  Richard,  1856 

-1934. 
The  evolution  of  religion 


CROWN   THEOLOGICAL   LIBRARY 


VOL.  XII. 
ARNELL'S  THE   EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF 
RELIGION 

AN    ANTHROPOLOGICAL   STUDY 
L.  R.  FARNELL,  M.A.,  D.Litt. 

AUTHOR  OF   "cults  OF  THE  GREEK   STATES*' 

FELLOW   AND   TUTOR   OF   EXETER  COLLEGE,    OXFORD",    UNIVERSITY   LECTURER 

IN     CLASSICAL    ARCHAEOLOGY  ;      CORRESPONDING    MEMBER    OF    THE 

GERMAN  IMPERIAL  ARCH^OLOGICAL  INSTITUTE  ;    FELLOW 

OF   THE   ANTHROPOLOGICAL  SOCIETY 


NEW  YORK:    G.   P.   PUTNAM'S  SONS 

LONDON :  WILLIAMS  AND  NORGATE 

1905 


Preface 

A  SMALL  book  on  a  great  and  difficult  subject 
must  explain  and  apologise  for  itself,  especially 
if  it  cannot  claim  a  raison  deire  as  a  hand- 
book for  beginners.  Having  accepted  the 
stimulating  invitation  to  give  in  the  spring  of 
this  year  a  short  series  of  lectures  for  the 
Hibbert  Trust  on  some  subject  belonging  to 
the  department  of  comparative  religion,  I  felt 
that  it  was  desirable  to  avoid  those  topics  that 
had  been  appropriated  by  former  lecturers  ;  and 
also  that  the  Trustees,  as  well  as  the  audience, 
deserved  that  what  the  lecturer  put  forth 
should  embody  the  results  of  some  personal 
and  original  study.  I  finally  selected  for 
special  discussion  the  ritual  of  purification,  and 


vi  Preface 

the  influence  of  the  ideas  associated  with  it 
upon  law,  morality,  and  religion  ;  and  secondly, 
the  development  of  prayer  from  lower  to 
higher  forms.  These  subjects  do  not  appear 
to  have  been  as  yet  exhaustively  treated  by 
modern  anthropology  or  scientific  and  com- 
parative theology,  and  I  had  already  worked 
upon  them  to  some  extent  as  "  parerga  "  of  the 
treatise  that  I  am  completing  for  the  Clarendon 
Press  on  the  history  of  Greek  cults.  I  am 
aware  that  these  special  questions  would  well 
repay  longer  and  more  minute  research,  and 
could  each  furnish  material  for  a  large  volume. 
But  having  been  advised  to  publish  the  lectures 
more  or  less  as  they  were  delivered,  I  put 
them  forth  as  tentative  and  incomplete  work. 
I  specially  regret  to  have  been  unable  to  have 
gone  further  at  present  into  the  Egyptian 
evidence,  with  the  kindly  proffered  assistance 
of  Mr  Griffiths,  the  Reader  in  Egyptology  at 
Oxford. 

The    first    two    lectures,   dealing   with   the 
methods  and  the  value  of  the  study  of  com- 


Preface  vii 

parative  religion  and  its  relations  to  anthro- 
pology, are  of  a  more  general  character.  If 
they  seem  to  occupy  somewhat  too  large  a 
part  of  a  work  of  this  small  compass,  the 
urgency  of  the  questions  theyJraise  may  serve 
as  an  apology.  It  was  suggested  to  me  that 
some  such  pronouncement  might  be  timely  at 
the  point  we  have  reached.  For  the  subject 
is  winning  greater  consideration,  and  even 
receiving  endowment,  in  the  organisation  of 
the  newer  Universities.  From  the  scientific 
point  of  view  it  is  one  of  the  most  fascinating 
of  studies ;  and  its  practical  importance  for 
our  colonial  administrators  and  our  missionaries 
is  obvious  to  those  who  reflect.  It  is  also  a 
legitimate  hope  that  its  wider  and  more  intel- 
ligent recognition  in  England  may  tend  to 
cool  and  temper  the  heated  atmosphere  of 
dogmatic  controversy,  by  presenting  religious 
facts  in  their  true  proportion  and  proper 
setting. 

I  must  take  this  opportunity  of  expressing 
my   gratitude   to   many   friends   for   valuable 


Vlll 


Preface 


assistance,  and  especially  to  my  friend  and 
colleague,  Mr  R.  Marett,  to  whose  compre- 
hensive knowledge  of  the  religious  thought 
and  ritual  of  savage  races  I  owe  many  im- 
portant clues. 

L.  R.  FARNELL. 

August,  1905. 


Contents 


LECTURES  I.  AND  II. 

PAGE 
THE    COMPARATIVE    STUDY    OF    RELIGIONS  I     ITS    METHOD 

AND    PROBLEMS  .......  1 


LECTURE  III. 

THE  RITUAL  OF  PURIFICATION  AND  THE  CONCEPTION 
OF  PURITY  :  THEIR  INFLUENCE  ON  RELIGION, 
MORALITY,    AND    SOCIAL    CUSTOM    ....  88 

LECTURE  IV. 

THE    EVOLUTION    OF     PRAYER    FROM     LOWER    TO    HIGHER 


FORMS 


163 


INDEX 232 


The  Evolution  of  Religion 

LECTURES    I.    AND    II. 

THE    COMPARATIVE    STUDY    OF    RELIGIONS  : 
ITS    METHOD    AND    PROBLEMS 

The  reasonable  and  sympathetic  study  of  the 
various  rehgions  of  mankind,  which  are  per- 
haps the  clearest  mirror  we  possess  of  human 
feehng,  aspiration,  and  thought  in  its  highest 
and  lowest  forms,  is  only  possible  for  the 
individual  or  for  the  age  that  feels  no  con- 
straining call  to  suppress  and  obliterate  all 
save  one  cherished  creed.  Such  study  began, 
as  we  should  expect,  in  the  earlier  Hellenic 
period,  the  Hellenic  religion  throwing  few 
or  no  obstacles  in  the  way  of  undogmatic 
investigation;  and  the  first  anthropologist  of 
religion  is  Herodotus.     Then  among  Hellen- 


2       The  Evolution  of  Religion 

istic  scholars  and  those  of  pre-Christian  Rome 
there  were  some  who  devoted  themselves  to 
the  collection  and  exposition  of  the  religious 
institutions  of  foreign  races.  But  save  a  few 
short  treatises,  such  as  Plutarch's  De  Iside  et 
Osii^ide,  Sallustius'  De  Diis  et  Mundo,  Lucian's 
De  Dea  Syria,  nothing  has  survived  beyond  the 
titles  and  the  fragments  of  their  works  ;  and 
by  an  irony  of  fortune  we  owe  much  of  our 
knowledge  of  Hellenic  and  other  religions  of 
the  Mediterranean  area  to  the  Christian  con- 
troversialists, who  reveal  many  of  the  essential 
features  of  the  various  pagan  creeds  in  order 
to  expose  them  to  obloquy :  they  could 
not  anticipate  that  we  should  gather  as  the 
fruit  of  their  labours  a  better  appreciation 
than  we  could  otherwise  have  gained  of  the 
religions  which  they  strove  to  destroy,  and 
possibly  of  Christianity  itself  If  I  were 
attempting,  as  I  do  not  propose  to  attempt, 
to  give  a  complete  survey  of  the  growth 
and  development  of  the  study  which  we  are 
considering,  I  should  probably  be  able  to  cull 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    3 

but  little  material  for  the  narrative  from 
Byzantine  and  mediaeval  sources.  We  may 
note  that  the  spirit  of  these  ages  was,  on  the 
whole,  alien  to  our  present  interest ;  and  that 
it  is  not  till  after  the  Renaissance  and  the 
discovery  of  America  that  systematic  work  in 
this  field  begins  again.  To  two  Spaniards  of 
Peruvian  and  Mexican  descent,^  we  owe  our 
knowledge  of  the  religions  of  the  Incas  and 
the  Aztecs,  that  of  the  latter  at  least  being  of 
prime  importance  for  the  student  of  the  higher 
religions  of  mankind.  A  Polish  nobleman  of 
the  16th  century  has  left  us  a  fairly  detailed 
account  of  the  rehgious  practices  and  beliefs 
of  the  then  semi-pagan  Lithuania.^  But  it 
may  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  greatest  achieve- 
ments of  the  latter  part  of  the  19th  century 
to  have  raised  the  comparative  study  of  re- 
ligion to  a  high  position  in  the  whole  domain 
of  inductive  speculation  and   inquiry.      And 

1  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  Royal  Commentary  of  the  Incas 
(Hakluyt  Society)  :  Sahagun — transl.  Jourdanet  et  Simeon. 

2  Jacob  Laskowski,  vide  Usener,  Gotternamen,  p.  82,  etc. 


4       The  Evolution  of  Religion 

its  development  has  been  mainly  due  to  two 
independent  lines  of  investigation.  The  first 
stimulus  came  with  the  discovery  and  the 
interpretation  of  the  sacred  books  of  the 
East,  a  momentous  epoch  in  the  history  of 
European  thought,  and  certain  important 
theories  concerning  religious  origins  were  put 
forth  by  Vedic  scholars,  and  based  on  the 
evidence  of  Vedic  literature :  at  the  same 
time  the  decipherment  of  the  Assyrian- Baby- 
lonian and  Egyptian  texts  has  contributed  a 
wealth  of  new  material,  and  has  started  new 
problems  of  religious  inquiry,  which  specially 
concern  the  students  of  Hellenic  as  well 
as  those  of  Semitic  antiquity.  But  an 
equally  or,  as  some  may  think,  more  power- 
ful factor  in  the  recent  advance  towards 
the  organised  knowledge  of  rehgions  has 
been  the  growth,  in  the  last  half-century, 
of  the  study  that  has  appropriated  the  name 
of  anthropology,  which  is  generally  under- 
stood to  mean  the  study  of  primitive  or 
savage  man,  both  in  the  past  and  the  present, 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    5 

in  respect  of  his  physical  and  mental  condi- 
tions. It  is  quite  unnecessary  for  me  to  dilate 
on  the  high  and  manifold  utility,  both  practical 
and  speculative,  of  this  new  branch  of  human 
inquiry ;  the  theme  has  become  almost  a 
popular  commonplace  in  the  leading  journal- 
ism of  the  day.  And  anthropology,  defined 
as  above,  has  a  definite  value  and  object  apart 
from  its  contributions  to  our  knowledge  of 
the  religions  of  the  world.  It  is  nevertheless 
true  that  the  religious  interest  in  England  is 
so  strong  and  penetrating,  that  many  of  our 
leading  anthropologists,  in  their  investigations 
of  savage  society,  have  directed  their  attention 
mainly  to  religious  or  quasi-religious  pheno- 
mena. Even  if  their  labours  were  confined 
to  the  discovery  and  the  exposition  of  savage 
ritual  and  belief,  we  should  still  be  greatly 
indebted  to  them ;  for  to  many  of  us  at  least 
the  savage  man  is  interesting  in  his  own  right, 
whether  it  is  true  or  not  that  the  study  of  his 
mental  phenomena  helps  to  explain  the  mental 
phenomena   of   our    higher   selves   or   of  the 


6       The   Evolution  of  Religion 

higher  races  in  the  past.  But  these  writers 
claim,  and  1  think  with  right,  to  have  done 
more  than  this,  and  by  comparison,  induction, 
and  hypothesis  to  have  thrown  some  hght  on 
the  evolution  of  religion  from  lower  to  higher 
forms,  and  therefore  to  have  laid  the  founda- 
tion for  the  science  with  which  we  are  con- 
cerned. Also  attempts  have  been  recently 
made  by  an  accomplished  scholar  of  the  new 
doctrine,  Dr  Frazer,  to  trace  what  may  be 
called  the  anthropological  genesis  of  the 
central  idea  of  Christianity  itself.^  It  is  not 
then  surprising  that  in  England  at  least  such 
claims  and  such  ambitions  should  excite  mis- 
trust, even  hostility,  and  the  prestige  of 
anthropology  may  have  also  suffered  at  times 
from  the  indiscretion  of  its  friends.  Still,  its 
work  is  of  wide  vogue,  its  energy  exuberant, 
and  its  influence  in  the  future  assured.  In 
considering,  therefore,  the  aims  and  methods 
of  the  comparative  science  of  religion,  it  has 
appeared   to  me  that  its  relations  to  anthro- 

1   Golden  Bough,  2nd  ed._,  vol.  iii.  p.  186. 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    7 

pology  are  now  one  of  the  main  points  in  the 
inquiry.  And  we  may  seem  to  have  reached 
a  stage  where  it  is  desirable  to  test  our  posi- 
tion, to  take  stock  as  it  were,  to  examine  our 
methods,  and  to  consider  whether  they  are 
capable  of  improvement.  The  task  is  difficult, 
and  in  facing  it  one  must  face  the  imputation 
of  presumption,  especially  as  in  a  short  course 
of  lectures  one  must  be  brief,  and  may  there- 
fore appear  over-dogmatic. 

If  the  comparative  study  of  religion  is  to 
examine,  as  on  the  ground  of  its  title  it  must, 
the  various  recorded  or  discoverable  religions 
of  every  branch  of  the  human  family,  then  a 
part  of  anthropology,  limited,  as  it  has  usually 
chosen  to  limit  itself,  to  the  study  of  the  savage 
races,  is  obviously  a  sub-department  of  the 
whole.  And  its  work,  conducted  often  under 
great  difficulties,  has  been  solid,  well-organised, 
and  of  high  importance.  Even  those  who 
deny  its  claim  to  be  called  a  science,  whatever 
that  word  may  mean,  must  admit  that  it  is 
at   least   an   indispensable    branch  of  historic 


8       The  Evolution  of  Religion 

inquiry,  and   that   it   has  deepened   the   self- 
knowledge  of  mankind. 

Some  of  its  pioneers  may  have  been  over- 
eager  in  their  theorising,  premature  in  their 
attempts  to  reveal  the  origin  of  all  religion  in 
some  savage  ritual  or  in  the  background  of 
savage  thought,  for  instance  in  ancestor- worship 
or  totemism.  Such  rash  generalisations  are 
inevitable  in  the  opening  periods  of  a  new 
study,  and  may  be  discredited  or  abandoned 
without  discrediting  the  investigations  that 
gave  rise  to  them.  We  may  have  come  to 
be  aware  of  the  excesses  of  the  students  of 
totemism :  we  may  have  come  to  the  convic- 
tion that  neither  theirs  nor  any  other  special 
and  single  hypothesis  has  as  yet  supplied  us 
with  the  master-clue  by  which  we  can  pene- 
trate to  the  aboriginal  source  of  human 
religion  :  we  may  have  found  scientific  reasons 
for  rejecting  the  belief  that  all  gods  arose  as 
ghosts  of  departed  ancestors.  But  if  we  dis- 
card such  theories  of  origin,  we  owe  this 
negative  result  to  the  maturer  study  of  anthro- 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    g 

pology  itself;  and  we  may  owe  to  it  the 
positive  induction  that  the  rehgious  product 
at  the  different  stages  and  in  the  different 
branches  of  mankind  was  a  complex  growth 
from  many  different   germs. 

It  has  taught  us  also  much  more  than  this. 
It  has  shown  us  that  all  through  the  present 
societies  of  savage  men  there  prevails  an  ex- 
traordinary uniformity,  in  spite  of  much  local 
variation,  in  ritual  and  mythology,  a  uniformity 
so  striking  as  to  suggest  belief  in  an  ultimately 
identical  tradition,  or,  perhaps  more  reason- 
ably, the  psychologic  theory  that  the  human 
brain-cell  in  different  races  at  the  same  stage 
of  development  responds  with  the  same 
religious  speech  or  the  same  religious  act  to 
the  same  stimuli  supplied  by  its  environment. 

We  have  learnt  to  discover  a  certain  savage 
style,  as  we  may  call  it,  in  myth  and  ritual ;  and 
anthropology  has  performed  a  twofold  work 
of  comparison ;  for  it  has  not  only  compared 
the  various  savage  races  of  mankind,  but  it 
has  compared  the  results  of  this    colligation 


lo     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

with  the  religious  phenomena   of  the  higher 
races,  and   has  revealed   the   savage   style   in 
much  of  their  mythology  and  ritual.     It  was 
first  discovered  by  the  earUer  investigators  of 
the  antiquity  of  Northern  Europe,  such  as  the 
brothers  Grimm  and  Mannhardt,  that  under- 
lying the  religion  of  Christendom  lay  a  stratum 
of  peasant-ritual   and   belief,  not  yet  extinct 
nor    likely    soon    to    be,    that     reveals     the 
same  mental  condition  in  early  Europe   that 
exists   among   our    savage   contemporaries   in 
various  parts  of  the  world.     Then  the  sacred 
edifice   of  Hellenism   was   attacked;   and  the 
complacency   of  Hellenic  scholars  was  some- 
times disturbed  by  the  revelation,  through  a 
strict  comparative  method,  of  the  same  savage 
style  in  much  of  Hellenic  ritual  and  Hellenic 
myth.     Thus  for  the  first   time  we   came   to 
understand  the  true  significance  of  many  of 
the    crude    and    repulsive    facts    in    Hellenic 
religion — the   human  sacrifices,  the  reverence 
paid  to  animals,  stones,  and  trees,  the  demon- 
ology  and  magic  rites.     JNIany  of  these  practices 


Comparative   Study   of  Religions     1 1 

had  lost  their  meaning  for  the  more  advanced 
generations,  who   nevertheless   retained  them 
under  the  strong  constraint  of  religious  con- 
servatism ;  but  if  we  find  the  same  practices 
among  existing  races  who  perform  them  with 
a  living  and  plenary  faith  as  part  of  a  quasi- 
logical  structure  of  belief,  we  can  place  them 
back  into  their  proper   setting  when  we   dis- 
cover them  still  surviving  in  the  higher  and 
alien  society.     Greek  religion  especially,  having 
never  violently  broken  with  its   own  past,  is 
a  bed  of  rich  deposit  still  inviting  exploration. 
And   now   Hellenic    scholars    are   ransacking 
the  same  treasure  for  further  anthropological 
material ;   while   Assyriologists   and    Egypto- 
logists are  treating  a  part  of  the  phenomena 
of  their  special  departments  in  the  same  spirit. 
We  realise  the  gain  of  this  :  we  are  slowly 
and  surely   arriving  at  inductive    conclusions 
concerning    the    similarity     of    development 
through   which   the   higher    and   lower   races 
have  passed  and  are  passing  ;  the  solidarity  of 
the  human  family   appears    stronger  than  we 


12     The   Evolution  of  Religion 

might  have  supposed.  At  the  same  time  we 
have  now  to  be  on  our  guard  against  certain 
common  anthropological  fallacies.  Some  of 
these  are  less  inevitable  than  others :  for 
instance,  that  which  we  may  call  the  fallacy 
of  simple  enumeration.  On  the  ground  of 
the  general  inductive  belief  that  the  higher 
races  have  at  one  time  passed  through  a 
savage  phase,  it  is  often  too  rashly  assumed 
that  each  and  all  of  them  must  at  one  time 
have  possessed  a  particular  institution,  such 
as  totemism  or  ancestor- worship,  which,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  is  found  among  the  majority  of 
the  savage  races  of  to-day.  This  is  to  ex- 
aggerate the  principle  of  solidarity,  to  ignore 
the  fact  of  the  great  diversity  actually  observ- 
able among  existing  primitive  societies,  and 
the  possibility  that  it  was  just  by  avoiding 
some  particular  detrimental  institution  that 
some  of  the  higher  peoples  were  able  to  pro- 
ceed on  their  path  of  progress.  Again,  the 
anthropological  explanation  is  often  obliged 
to  be  hypothetical,  for  the  evidence  presented 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    13 

is  often  very  fragmentary :  by  means  of  a 
reasonable  and  expert  imagination,  an  attempt 
is  made  to  reconstruct  a  whole  fabric  out  of 
a  few  fragments.  A  single  bone  may  enable 
the  expert  biologist  to  reshape  unerringly  the 
once  living  animal ;  but  in  anthropology  the 
fragment  in  question  may  have  descended 
from  either  one  of  two  differing  organisms  or 
organic  institutions  that  may  have  left  very 
much  the  same  imprint  upon  mythology  and 
religion.  For  instance,  a  full-fledged  totemistic 
system,  having  fallen  into  decay,  might  leave 
its  trace  in  certain  stories  about  animals  or 
in  occasional  reverence  paid  to  a  particular 
animal :  but  direct  animal-worship,  a  religious 
view  that  may  be  quite  independent  of  totem- 
ism,  or  certain  forms  of  ancestor- worship  may 
equally  well  have  deposited  the  same  fossil- 
thought  or  fossil-rite.^  And  we  know  how 
recklessly  the  theory  of  the  ubiquitous  practice 

^  For  instance^  an  ancestor  may  for  certain  reasons  be 
worshipped  in  the  form  of  a  snake,  and  yet  this  need  not 
imply  a  snake-tribe  or  any  tribal  worship  of  snakes  in 
general. 


14     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

of  human  sacrifice  has  been  used  to  explain 
certain  pecuhar  phenomena  in  later  ritual,  such 
as  the  scourging  of  the  Spartan  boys,  for 
example. 

But  a  stricter  anthropology  can  correct  the 
over-narrow  hypotheses  of  its  immaturity,  and 
can  render  masterly  aid  to  the  evolutionary 
study  of  the  higher  religions  ;  for  each  of 
these,  in  spite  of  revelation  or  transforming 
enthusiasm  that  would  obliterate  the  past, 
contains  a  mass  of  mysterious  dead  matter ; 
and  it  is  for  the  anthropologist  to  show  the 
prior  functional  organic  significance  of  this. 
But  if,  in  obedience  to  the  currently  accepted 
limitation  of  his  subject,  he  confines  himself 
mainly  to  the  study  of  savage  life  and  to  the 
dead  matter  of  the  higher  religions,  and  yet  is 
tempted  to  deal  with  the  more  vital  and 
essential  elements  in  these,  he  will  be  liable  to 
the  special  bias  of  his  own  study.  We  may 
note  such  bias  in  recent  attempts  to  ex- 
plain the  essential  features  of  the  Eleusinian 
Mysteries  in  the  light  of  merely  savage  anthro- 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions     15 

pology.  And  of  course  we  are  all  apt  to  lose 
the  sense  of  proportion  and  to  exaggerate  the 
importance  of  the  special  phenomena  to  which 
we  confine  our  regard.  The  folk-lorist  will  be 
liable  to  over-emphasise  the  part  played  by 
mythology  in  religion,  and  may  ignore  the 
higher  importance  of  prayer  and  ritual ;  for 
the  most  conscientious  cobbler  is  never  really 
able  to  stick  to  his  last.  In  fact,  though  the 
whole  exposition  of  the  higher  religions  is 
impossible  without  anthropology,  there  is  some 
danger  at  present  lest  the  part  be  at  times 
mistaken  for  the  whole.  For  instance,  we 
may  feel  with  some  uneasiness  that  recent 
expositions  of  Hellenic  rehgion  tend,  uninten- 
tionally no  doubt,  to  distort  the  view  of  the 
reader  and  to  produce  a  false  impression  by 
exaggerating  the  savage  and  primitive  facts, 
missing  the  true  perspective  and  misjudging 
the  whole.  Our  appreciation  of  Greek  myth- 
ology may  suffer  in  the  same  way,  unless  we 
can  keep  the  keen  edge  of  our  appreciative 
faculty  :  the  Greek  myth  has  often  its  striking 


1 6     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

affinities  with  the  Arunta  or  the  Pawnee,  and 
it  is  necessary  for  comparative  folk-lore  and 
anthropology  to  point  this  out,  and  often  to 
insist  on  the  beauty  of  the  legend  and  the 
dignity  of  the  religious  thought  among  savages  : 
but  it  is  unfortunate  if  these  studies  should 
result  in  our  loss  of  the  perception  that  Greek 
mythology,  after  all,  is  the  most  beautiful  of 
any  of  which  we  have  record. 

The  fallacy  which  I  have  so  far  tried  to 
indicate  arises  from  the  temper  of  mind  that  a 
special  study  is  liable  to  engender.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  is  a  particular  fallacy  of 
method  to  which  the  modern  study  of  anthro- 
pology, as  it  has  chosen  to  limit  itself,  specially 
exposes  us.  It  is  liable  to  withdraw  us  from 
the  immediate  entourage  of  a  particular  fact — 
a  particular  legend  or  a  religious  service — to 
the  distant  circumference.  It  was  inevitable 
for  the  earliest  pioneers  of  the  study  to  travel 
far,  for  the  circumference  was  unexplored,  and 
there  were  facts  lying  at  the  distant  points 
that    concerned   us.     But,  after   all,  our   first 


Comparative   Study  of  Religions     17 

object  of  study  should  be  the  more  immediate 
environment  of  the  thing  which  we  wish  to 
understand.  The  student  of  Hellenic  religion 
and  myth  may  have  ultimately  to  roam,  in  a 
literary  sense,  into  Central  Australia  and  the 
byways  of  America ;  but  he  ought  first  to 
explore  the  Mediterranean  regions  and  the 
lands  of  anterior  Asia.  It  is  interesting,  and 
may  be  necessary,  to  know  "  the  Pawnee  ver- 
sion of  the  Eleusinia " ;  but,  for  the  true 
understanding  of  the  great  Greek  mystery, 
certain  elements  in  the  Egyptian  religion,  in 
Mithraism,  and  in  Christianity  itself  will  prob- 
ably afford  a  more  illuminative  comparison. 
The  mind  of  our  student  is  sometimes  tempted, 
in  fact,  to  travel  too  easily  and  too  cheaply  to 
the  other  side  of  the  globe,  and  to  leave  un- 
done work  that  should  first  have  been  done 
nearer  home. 

To  reduce  these  ideas  to  something  like  a 
working  formula  of  method,  may  we  say 
that  the  anthropology  which  the  comparative 
study  of  any   one   of  the  more  complex  and 


1 8     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

advanced  religions  immediately  demands  is 
"  an  adjacent  anthropology  "  ?  For  religious 
ideas,  legends,  and  ritual  are  most  contagious, 
and  tend  to  propagate  themselves  over  large 
contiguous  areas  :  for,  to  reverse  a  stereotyped 
question,  "  what  is  less  its  own  than  a  people's 
gods  ? "  We  greatly  desiderate  an  anthro- 
pology of  the  Mediterranean  basin,  including 
anterior  Asia ;  for  there  are  strong  reasons  for 
the  belief  that  from  very  early  times  the  fre- 
quent intercourse  of  the  leading  peoples  in  this 
region  endowed  them  with  a  common  stock  of 
religious  ideas,  ritual,  and  legend  which  have 
probably  left  their  impress  on  the  higher 
religions  of  the  world.  It  is  these  that  speci- 
ally interest  most  of  us,  and  we  feel  we  cannot 
solve  their  problems  by  means  of  savage 
anthropology  alone.  Why,  after  all,  should  the 
latter  term  be  restricted,  as  it  usually  is,  to  the 
study  of  savage  life?  Doubtless  we  cannot 
so  extend  the  use  of  the  word  as  to  cover  its 
full  etymological  signification :  else  it  would 
come  to  include  the  whole  of  human  history 


Comparative   Study  of  Religions     19 

from  the  beginning  down  to  the  present,  and 
would  lose  its  value  as  a  mark  of  any  special 
science.  But  we  might  somewhat  enlarge  its 
present  connotation  with  advantage  to  the 
comparative  method,  and  without  a  too  wide 
departure  from  current  usage.  We  might 
define  the  anthropological  study  of  any  one  of 
the  higher  religions  as  an  evolutionary  study 
of  its  embryology  :  the  evolutionary  law  might 
appear  in  the  first  instance  as  a  proximate 
law  of  growth.  For  probably  every  one  of  the 
world-creeds  has  inherited,  apart  from  its  own 
achievement,  a  double  tradition,  a  tradition 
from  the  more  remote  and  one  from  the  more 
immediate  past.  The  first  may  descend  from 
immemorial  antiquity,  and  from  really  primi- 
tive or  savage  mental  and  social  life ;  and  it 
has  been  the  task  of  primitive  anthropology 
to  expound  and  explain  the  facts  that  this 
tradition  has  deposited.  But  many  if  not 
most  of  these  facts  may  be  regarded  as  func- 
tionally dead  matter  surviving  in  the  more 
advanced  system  of  belief,  and  as  not  belong- 


20     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

ing  to  its  essential  life.  On  the  other  hand, 
from  the  immediate  tradition  much  will  be 
found  to  have  been  taken  over  by  an  inevitable 
law  of  assimilation,  certain  potent  ideas  which, 
though  transformed,  will  enter  into  the  very 
life-blood  of  the  new  creed.  And  these  are  to 
be  discovered  and  analysed  by  what  I  have 
ventured  to  call  an  "  adjacent "  anthropology, 
which  will  include  a  comprehensive  study  of 
the  literature  and  monuments  belonging  to 
the  more  proximate  past  of  the  race  which 
develops  the  new  faith  as  well  as  of  the  races 
that  are  its  nearer  neighbours. 

Such  a  method,  though  not  hitherto  styled 
anthropological,  has  already  been  applied  by 
various  scholars  in  the  different  parts  of 
our  field ;  the  exposition  of  the  Babylonian 
elements  in  Judaic  religion,  of  the  Judaic 
and  pagan  elements  in  Moslemism,  are 
examples  of  it.  On  the  present  occasion  I 
would  prefer  to  illustrate  it  by  noting  its 
application  to  the  scientific  study  of  Chris- 
tianity itself,  of  which  the   remarkable   com- 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    21 

plexity,  the  variety  of  forms  that  it  has 
assumed  in  different  parts  of  Christendom  at 
different  periods,  seems  specially  to  invite  the 
higher  anthropological  treatment.  Moreover 
it  probably  contains  a  richer  deposit  than  any 
other  of  the  world-religions  from  the  various 
streams  of  thought  and  belief  that  nourished 
the  life  of  early  civilised  or  semi -civilised  man. 
The  illustration  drawn  from  our  own  religion 
will  be  also  more  personally  interesting  to 
ourselves ;  and  though  the  limits  of  time 
and  my  own  knowledge  may  prevent  me 
from  putting  forth  any  original  statement, 
yet  something  may  be  gained  and  a  more 
extended  interest  awakened  by  a  brief  notice 
of  what  has  been  and  what  remains  to 
be  done. 

There  is  now  no  need  for  apology  if  one 
wishes  frankly  to  consider  the  genesis  of  the 
fundamental  ideas  and  prevailing  institutions  of 
earlier  and  later  Christianity,  although  hitherto 
a  certain  religious  shyness,  which  belongs  to 
the  national  character,  may  have  made  English 


2  2     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

scholars  reluctant  to  attempt  the  anthropology 
of  our  national  faith ;  and  the  progress  of  the 
subj  ect  owes  more  to  foreign  workers.  Our  own 
theological  students  of  distinction  have  not 
evaded  the  question  as  to  the  early  influences 
that  may  have  moulded  the  religious  thought  of 
Christ  and  St  Paul ;  but  these  were  naturally 
sought  mainly  in  the  later  Judaism ;  and 
though  the  debt  of  the  developed  Christianity 
to  Hellenic  philosophy  has  never  been  ignored, 
yet  that  neither  our  sacred  books  nor  Judaic 
literature  nor  Greek  philosophy  explain  the 
whole  complex  of  historic  Christianity,  is  a 
conviction  of  recent  growth,  and  the  investiga- 
tions to  which  it  has  prompted  are  recent. 
For  instance,  it  was  a  new  departure  of  great 
promise  for  the  future  of  our  science  when,  in 
a  course  of  Hibbert  lectures  delivered  some 
years  ago,  Dr  Hatch  publicly  expounded  the 
deep  indebtedness  of  Christianity  in  respect  of 
ritual,  organisation,  and  even  religious  con- 
cept to  the  Eleusinian  Mysteries  and  other 
mystic  societies  of  Greek  lands.     And  the  few 


Comparative  Study   of  Religions    23 

students  of  Hellenic  religion  in  England  have 
often  noted  its  many  ties  of  affinity  with  our 
own,  though  of  these  there  has  been  as  yet  no 
complete  and  authoritative  account.  We  may 
admit  that  the  triumph  of  a  new  and  great 
creed  may  imply  a  potent  revelation,  perhaps 
a  sudden  mental  transformation  in  the 
catechumens  difficult  to  equate  with  any 
formulated  law  of  evolution.  Still  we  cannot 
gainsay  the  experience  that  as  the  religion 
establishes  and  organises  itself,  it  draws 
nourishment  from  the  old  soil  which  is  full  of 
the  living  germs  of  past  organisms.  Therefore 
it  was  inevitable  that  Hellenic  religion  should 
leave  a  deep  impress  upon  earlier  and  later 
Christianity ;  partly  because  the  religious 
temper  in  the  Greek  world  throughout 
the  centuries  immediately  preceding  the  adop- 
tion of  Christianity  was  more  powerful  and 
fervid  than  it  had  been  in  the  days  of  Homer 
or  Pericles,  and  mainly  because  Hellenic 
converts  became  the  pillars  of  the  Church. 
But  the  comparative  student  must  pursue  the 


24     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

problem  further  afield  and  beyond  the  track 
of  Hellas.  The  old  Phrygian  religion,  which 
Professor  Ramsay's  travels  and  investigations 
have  assisted  us  to  know,  must  be  seriously 
taken  into  account ;  for  Phrygia  was  one  of 
the  earliest  homes  of  Christianity,  its  ab- 
original religion  had  germinated  in  ideas 
strikingly  akin  to  some  that  are  primary  in  all 
or  many  of  the  creeds  of  Christendom  ;  and  the 
morbid  and  ecstatic  temperament  of  the  native 
Phrygian,  which  gave  so  distinct  a  colour  to 
the  Cybele-Attis  cult,  seems  to  have  appeared 
again  in  certain  schismatic  forms  of  Christian 
doctrine  in  Phrygia,  especially  in  the  heresy  of 
Montanism.  Finally,  we  may  learn  much, 
even  adopt  much,  from  our  enemies.  The 
most  dangerous  antagonists  of  Christianity 
were,  after  all,  the  worship  of  Isis  and 
Mithraism.  It  may  be  possible  to  trace  the' 
influence  of  these  on  their  conqueror:  the 
great  work  of  M.  Cumont  on  Mithras  cult 
suggests  at  least  many  interesting  religious 
parallels ;     and   even    the    older    Zoroastrian 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    25 

literature  must  be  considered  within  the  range 
of  necessary  and  legitimate  comparison. 

As  I  am  here  concerned  with  illustration  of 
method  rather  than  with  positive  proof,  I  can 
only  offer  a  very  brief  summary  of  the  results 
which  the  anthropological  study  of  Christianity 
has  hitherto  achieved,  and  may  yet  achieve. 

The  rehgious  affinities  discoverable  be- 
tween the  earlier  and  later  "Mediterranean" 
systems  may  be  classified  according  as  they 
appear  in  the  legends,  in  nomenclature  and 
terminology,  in  external  symbols  and  liturgical 
objects,  in  hieratic  institutions,  and  finally  in 
the  ideas,  aspirations,  and  concepts  of  faith. 
As  regards  legend  and  mythology,  a  great 
historic  religion  may  of  course  claim  to  be 
free  from  all  mythology;  nevertheless  it  is  a 
matter  of  experience  that  popular  legends  are 
sure  at  some  period  earlier  or  later  to  creep  in, 
for  the  people  insist  on  telling  the  old  stories 
under  changed  names.  I  myself  have  heard 
the  immemorial  story  of  Odysseus  walking 
inland  with  his  oar,  which  the  rustic  mistakes 


26     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

for  a  winnowing-fan,  told  about  St  Peter, 
St  Paul,  and  St  John  on  the  coast  of  the 
Peloponnese ;  just  as  an  old  Norse  legend 
about  Odin  and  Baldur  is  retold  of  Christ  and 
St  Peter. ^  And  students  of  medieeval  hagi- 
ology  will  discover  more  and  more  clearly 
various  fragments  of  pre-Christian  mythology 
embedded  in  the  legends  of  the  saints.  Such 
facts  are  the  material  of  comparative  folk-lore, 
which  plays  a  useful  but  quite  subordinate  part 
in  the  work  of  comparative  religion.  Legends 
have  indeed  their  own  independent  interest, 
poetical,  ethical,  and  other  ;  but  the  importance 
of  mere  mythology  in  the  study  of  religion  has 
been  often  much  overrated ;  St  Augustine,  mis- 
taking Greek  legends  for  Greek  religion,  could 
discover  no  morality  in  it  at  all,^  and  modern 
scholars  have  inherited  the  fallacy.  Myths  are 
often  irresponsible,  capricious,  volatile,  and  flit 
like  a  vapour  round  the  solid  structure  of  real 

1  Vide  infra,  pp.  192,  193. 

2  E.g.    De    Civ.    Dei,  bk.    2,    ch.    6 :    deos   paganoinim 
nunquam  bene  vivendi  sanxisse  doctrinam. 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    27 

belief  and  ritual.  A  high  religion  may  attract 
low  myths  :  some  of  our  own  are  not  spotless, 
but  Christianity  can  ignore  them.  The  myth 
that  is  an  essential  fact  for  the  student  of  religion 
is  that  which  enshrines  some  living  religious 
idea  or  institution,  or  one  which  proves  the 
survival  of  some  ritual  or  faith  that  belonged 
to  an  older  system.  I  may  note  a  few  of  this 
kind  which  illustrate  the  affinities  of  Judaic, 
Christian,  and  pagan  legend.  The  cessation 
of  human-sacrifice  in  the  Mediterranean  area, 
the  awakening  of  the  conviction  that  the 
practice  was  abhorrent  to  a  merciful  God, 
imphed  so  momentous  a  change  in  religious 
and  moral  thought  and  practice  that  it  would 
be  strange  if  it  left  no  legendary  record  of 
itself.  We  may  discern  one  in  the  story  of 
Abraham's  sacrifice ;  to  which  we  find  a  very 
striking  and  close  parallel  in  the  Laconian 
legend  of  Helen,  whose  father  intended  to 
sacrifice  her  to  God  in  order  to  stay  a  plague  :^ 

1  Plutarch,  Parallela,  35.      Vide  my  Cults  of  Greek  States, 
vol.  i.  p.  93. 


2  8     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

the  eagle,  the  messenger  of  God,  swooped 
down  and  snatched  the  knife  from  the  sacri- 
ficer's  hand,  and  let  it  fall  on  a  kid  that  was 
pasturing  near.  Again,  we  are  all  familiar 
with  the  story  of  Jephtha's  vow :  the  fact  is 
not  so  well  known  that  a  story  identical  in 
nearly  every  detail  was  told  of  Idomeneus, 
the  Cretan  hero,^  who  vowed  that  if  he  re- 
turned home  from  the  Trojan  war  he  would 
sacrifice  to  God  the  first  thing  that  he  met  on 
landing:  his  daughter  was  the  first  that  met 
him — and  Idomeneus  "  did  with  her  according 
to  his  vow,"  or  intended  to  do  so,  and  the 
people  exiled  him  for  it.  Different  from 
these,  but  belonging  to  the  inner  circle,  so 
to  speak,  of  sacred  narrative,  are  one  or 
two  Gospel  stories  which  are  not  peculiar  to 
Palestine  or  to  our  sacred  books.  The  mir- 
aculous star  that  guides  sacred  personages 
on  a  divine  errand  must  be  an  Anatolian  star- 
legend,  for  it  is  told  of  ^neas  and  his  voyage 
to  Italy.^     And  a  critical  appreciation  of  the 

1  Servius,  Mn.  iii.  121.  2  /^^^.^  ii,  goj^ 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    29 

style  of  Hellenic  folk-lore  detects  at  once  a 
marked  Hellenic  colour  in  the  legends  that 
gather  around  the  birth  and  rearing  of  the 
Virgin  in  the  apocryphal  Gospel  of  St  James. 
More  important  and  suggestive  of  much  more 
is  the  parallelism  that  we  discover  between 
the  story  of  our  Lord's  temptation  and  the 
temptation  of  Zarathustra  in  the  Zend-Avesta: 
here  also  the  evil  god  offers  the  holy  prophet 
the  kingdoms  of  the  world  if  he  will  fall  down 
and  worship  him.^ 

Finally,  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  strange 
legend  preserved  in  various  late  Greek  MSS., 
of  the  Virgin  Mary's  descent  into  hell,^  where 
she  is  shown  the  torments  of  the  damned,  is 
derived  ultimately  from  the  Babylonian  myth 
of  the  descent  of  Ischtar,  which  in  the  Greek 
world  transformed  itself  into  the  story  of  the 
descent  of  Aphrodite.  This  suggestion  is  in 
harmony   with    the    evidence   which   will    be 

1  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  vol.  iv.  (ed.  Mills),  p.  211. 

2  Vide  account  of  these  in  Revue  des  Etudes  grecques,  xiii. 
(1900),  p.  233,  and  Annuairede  V Association  pour  V encourage- 
ment des  Etudes  grecques^  1871,  p.  92. 


30     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

noticed  below  for  the  belief  that  the  develop- 
ment of  the  worship  and  the  divine  character 
of  the  Virgin  owed  much,  directly  or  indirectly, 
to  the  great  Anatolian  cult  of  the  mother- 
goddess. 

As  regards  the  legend  just  mentioned,  we 
may  suppose  direct  borrowing,  or  at  least 
direct  mental  suggestion  from  an  older 
mythology  and  faith.  To  the  other  examples 
which  I  have  adduced — probably  only  a  few 
among  many  that  might  be  quoted — the  theory 
of  borrowing  may  be  inappropriate. 

It  may  be  more  scientific,  and  certainly  it  is 
at  present  more  expedient,  to  be  content  with 
the  assumption  that  for  thousands  of  years 
over  contiguous  human  areas  a  similarity  of 
religious  temperament,  religious  institutions, 
religious  crises  may  tend  to  produce  a  common 
stock  of  legend  ;  whether  the  legend  is  true  or 
false  is  not  our  present  concern. 

I  turn  now  to  the  second  group  of  affini- 
ties, those  in  nomenclature  and  terminology. 
This   may  at  first  sight  appear  a  matter  un- 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    31 

important  for  the  evolution  of  religion,  and  of 
merely  linguistic  concern.  A  people  changing 
its  religion  cannot  suddenly  change  its  speech, 
but  must  adapt  the  old  terminology  to  the 
new  thought.  It  may  be  of  interest  for  the 
student  of  language  to  know  that  when  St 
Paul  promises  to  "  show  you  a  mystery  "  he  is 
borrowing  the  language  of  paganism;  that 
when  Bishop  Clemens^  ecstatically  exclaims, 
"The  Lord  is  our  hierophant ;  bearing  the 
sacred  torch  He  has  marked  the  initiate  with 
His  own  seal  .  .  .  once  join  our  mystery  and 
you  will  dance  in  the  choir  of  angels,"  he  is 
using  the  phraseology  of  the  Eleusinian  and 
Attis  Mysteries.  But  the  interest  of  such  a 
style,  upon  which  Dr  Hatch  has  sufficiently 
commented,  is  more  than  linguistic ;  for  it 
foreshadows  a  real  though  fortunately  a 
temporary  change  which  came  over  Chris- 
tianity in  the  first  few  centuries  of  its  life, 
transforming  it  from  an  open  doctrine  into  a 
mystery  organised  after  the   old  Greek  type. 

1   ProtrepL,  12,  §  120  (p.  92  P). 


32     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

Moreover  the  modern  logical  view  of  names 
as  merely  indifferent  speech -symbols,  which 
can  be  changed  without  affecting  the  essence 
of  the  things,  was  by  no  means  the  old-world 
view.  The  formula  nomina  sunt  numina  was 
valid  in  all  the  old  religions  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean area,  including  earlier  and  even  later 
Christianity :  the  divine  name  was  felt  to  be 
part  of  the  divine  essence  and  itself  of  super- 
natural potency ;  and  this  will  be  seen  to  be 
of  paramount  importance  when  we  consider 
the  forms  of  ancient  prayer.  Therefore 
the  propagation  of  a  new  religion  was  greatly 
assisted  if  it  could  allow  itself  to  employ  some 
at  least  of  the  names  potent  and  familiar 
in  the  older  creed.  Now  the  personal 
names  of  the  various  deities  of  paganism, 
owing  to  the  mental  illusion  noted  above,  were 
necessarily  hateful  to  the  new  faith  and  were 
ruthlessly  suppressed,  surviving  merely  as 
names  of  demons  or  for  purposes  of  magic  : 
only  in  remote  corners  of  the  old  world  one 
or    two   may  still   be  lingering,  purified  as  it 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    33 

were   and  at  peace,  as  in  the  modern  chapel 
of    "Panagia     Aphroditissa,"    near    the    old 
Paphos   in  Cyprus.     But  some  of  the  sacred 
names  of  Greek  paganism  were  mere   appel- 
latives,  possessing  less  individual  personality, 
and  were  therefore   innocent   in   the   ears   of 
the    Christian    propagandists.      And    two    of 
these    were    destined    to    become    names    of 
primary  virtue  in  the  terminology  of  the  new 
faith.     When  the  apostles  and  their  successors 
preached  the  Gospel  of  "the  Saviour,"  this  title 
could  awaken   at   least  a  responsive  religious 
thrill  in  the  hearts  of  the  Hellenes  who  had 
been  nursed  in  their  ancestral  religion.     For  it 
had  long  been  attached  to  their  supreme  god, 
and    in    its   feminine   form   to   their   beloved 
goddess    Kore,    and    as    applied    to    her   the 
appellative  already  connoted  **  salvation  "  after 
death ;  ^  and  already  it  had  been  used  by  the 
Alexandrian   Greeks   to    sanctify    the    divine 
man,    God's    representative    on    earth,    "the 

1  I  have  noticed  the  evidence  of  this  in  my  forthcoming 
third  volume  of  the  Cults  of  the  Greek  States, 


34     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

living  image  of  God,"  as  one  of  the  later 
Ptolemies  is  styled  in  the  ecstatic  language  of 
the  Rosetta  inscription.^  But  in  the  history 
of  divine  names  none  have  been  of  greater 
import  for  paganism  and  Christianity  alike 
than  "  Kore-Parthenos  "  and  that  of  the  Greek 
and  Phrygian  "  Divine  Mother,"  the  Oeuiv 
M7]Trjp.  It  is  at  least  probable  that  the  pre- 
valence of  the  cult  and  the  name  of  "  Kore," 
the  goddess  who  proffered  salvation  in  the 
pre-Christian  Hellenic  world,  afforded  strong 
stimulus  to  the  later  growth  and  diffusion  of 
Mariolatry,  which  is  one  of  those  phenomena 
in  the  history  of  the  Church  which  cannot  be 
adequately  explained  without  looking  beyond 
the  limits  of  Christianity  proper.  A  passage 
in  the  Panarium  of  Epiphanios  ^  is  of  singular 
interest  for  those  who  wish  to  study  the 
period   of  transition   between  old  things  and 

1  ai.G.,  4697. 

2  Haeres.  51,  22;  Dindorf,  vol.  ii.  p.  483,  \2-2g:^vide 
Philologus,  16,  p.  354.  I  find  that  the  view  1  have  taken 
of  this  important  text  agrees  on  the  whole  with  that  of 
Usener  in  his  U?itersuckunge?i,  p.  27. 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    35 

new.  This  writer  tells  us  that  on  the  night 
of  the  5th  or  6th  of  January,  in  Alexandria, 
the  worshippers  met  in  the  sacred  enclosure  or 
temple  of  "  Kore,"  and  having  sung  hymns  to 
the  music  of  the  flute  till  dawn,  they  de- 
scended by  the  light  of  torches  into  an  under- 
ground shrine  and  brought  up  thence  a 
wooden  idol  on  a  bier  representing  Kore, 
seated  and  naked,  with  the  sign  of  the  cross 
on  her  brow,  her  hands,  and  her  knees. 
And  with  the  accompaniment  of  flutes,  hymns, 
and  dances  the  image  was  carried  round  the 
central  shrine  seven  times,  before  it  was 
restored  again  to  its  nether  dwelling-place : 
"  and  the  votaries  say  that  to-day  at  this  hour 
Kore — that  is,  the  Virgin — gave  birth  to  the 
Eternal." 

It  is  strange  that  Epiphanios  should  quote 
this  rite  as  an  example  of  pure  paganism. 
This  cannot  be  true :  the  image  has  been 
carefully  signed  with  the  cross  in  such  a  way 
as  to  suggest,  not  casual  violence,  but  the 
deliberate   intention   of  the  worshippers ;  nor 


36     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

could  the  formula,  "the  Virgin  has  born  the 
Eternal,"  have  been  part  of  a  purely  pagan 
liturgy  consecrated  to  the  Hellenic  Kore. 
Still  less  could  the  service  be  purely  Christian : 
at  least  I  imagine  that  a  naked  Virgin,  kept  in 
a  cavern  shrine  and  carried  round  with  timbrels, 
would  be  a  unique  fact  in  Christian  archee- 
ology.  The  belief  is  forced  upon  us  that  we 
have  here  a  blending  of  at  least  two  rival 
creeds  in  a  period  of  transition.  An  old  ritual 
of  Kore  at  Alexandria,  the  goddess  of  the 
underworld  whose  statue  was  kept  in  a  sub- 
terraneous cavern,  may  have  included  a  kind 
of  passion  play  in  which  a  holy  child  was 
born :  as  this  occurred  near  the  beginning  of 
January,  it  could  all  the  more  easily  be  adapted 
to  the  requirements  of  a  gradually  prevailing 
Christianity.  The  idol  is  sanctified  with  the 
sign  of  the  cross,  and  the  child  is  called  "  the 
Aion."  This  name  betrays  the  influence  at 
work.  The  doctrine  which  laboured  most 
zealously  to  combine  the  various  elements  of 
the  pagan  and  Christian  creeds   was   Gnosti- 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    37 

cism,  and  "  Aion "  was  a  figure  which  the 
Gnostics  borrowed  from  Mithraism/  It  seems 
that  the  rehgious  rays  from  Hellas,  Persia, 
and  Bethlehem  converged  at  the  "  Korion  "  of 
Alexandria.  But  the  name  Koprj  does  not 
seem  to  have  usually  formed  part  of  the  sacred 
title  accepted  by  the  early  Church  for  the 
Mother  of  our  Lord.  Probably  the  name  had 
acquired  a  personal  association  with  the  pagan 
goddess  too  strong  to  allow  it  to  be  used  for 
the  new  faith  ;  ^  nor  was  the  idea  of  virginity 
so  directly  connoted  by  it  as  by  the  term 
Trap^eVos :  hence  rj  ayvrj  7TapOevo<^  or  17  ayia 
wapOivos  is  chosen  for  the  Christian  appellation 
of  Mary.  But  these  words  themselves  belong 
to  the  ancient  hieratic  vocabulary  of  Hellas, 
for  the  maiden-goddess  known  by  no  other 
name  than  Parthenos  had  long  been  adored  in 

1  That  Aion  was  a  real  figure  of  Mithraic  religion  has 
been  finally  proved  by  the  Mitkras-Liturgie,  published  by 
Dieterich,  p.  4^  1.  21. 

2  Usener  quotes  a  few  examples  from  the  liturgy  of  the 
Greek  Church  and  one  or  two  from  patristic  literature, 
Religions gesch.  Untersuchungen,  \,  p.  28,  n.  5  :  some  of 
these  are  poetical. 


38     The  Evolution   of  Religion 

various  states  of  Asia  Minor  and  Thrace  ;  ^ 
"  Hagne,"  the  "  Holy  One,"  was  a  divinity 
dear  to  the  Arcadians ;  ^  and  at  Assos,  the 
chief  port  of  Mysia,  visited  by  St  Paul  on  one 
of  his  journeys,  an  inscription  attests  that 
"  the  Holy  Virgin  of  our  fatherland  " — such 
is  her  style — had  been  pre-eminent  in  the 
pagan  worship.^  Moreover  the  sacred  title, 
''  the  Mother  of  God,"  was  sympathetic  with 
a  very  ancient  and  dominant  Mediterranean 
faith :  in  prehistoric  times  from  Crete,  and 
at  a  later  period  from  Phrygia,  had  gone 
forth  the  worship  of  the  divine  mother, 
known  generally  as  "the  Gods'  Mother"  or 
"  the  Mother,"  which  had  left  a  deep  impress 
upon  the  religious  imagination  of  the  various 
races  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  world.  It  is 
no  paradox  to  affirm  that  one  of  the  streams 

1  Fide  Artemis  R.  37,  in  my  Cults  of  the  Greek  States, 
vol.  ii.  p.  567. 

2  Paus.  4,  33,  4  :  inscription  in  Dittenberger,  Sylloge^'^\ 

3  Vide  Report  of  American  School  at  Athens,  vol.  i.^  inscr. 
No.  xxvi. 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    39 

that  fostered  the  later  growth  of  Mariolatry 
may  have  descended  from  the  Minoan  palace 
of  Knossos.^ 

As  regards  the  third  group  in  my  classifica- 
tion, external  symbols  and  liturgical  objects, 
we  might  suppose  that  these  mainly  belong  to 
the  minutiae  of  archaeological  study.  A  phil- 
osopher may  ignore  them  as  trivial  facts  ;  but 
they  have  been  the  cause  of  too  much  blood- 
shed and  strife  to  be  ignored  by  the  history  of 
religions,  and  the  feelings  they  excite  are  still 
powerful  enough  to  divide  the  churches  and  the 
sects  of  Christendom.  Besides,  if  one  religion 
borrows  its  symbols  and  sacred  objects  from  an- 
other, it  probably  borrows  much  more  besides. 
The  use  of  candles  and  incense  in  churches, 
the  fashion  of  certain  ecclesiastic  vestments, 
can  be  shown  to  have  descended  to  us  from  a 
pre-Christian  world.  And  it  was  quite  natural 
that  the  new  faith  should  take  over  the  religious 
property  of  paganism,  whatever  at  least  it  could 

1  Vide  chapter  on  Cybele  in  the  forthcoming  third 
volume  of  my  Cults  of  the  Greek  States. 


40     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

receive  without  violation  of  its  own  essential 
principles.  It  is  only  the  anthropological  study 
of  these  particulars,  apparently  insignificant  in 
themselves,  that  enables  us  to  understand 
certain  modern  controversies,  as  for  instance 
concerning  incense,  and  also  to  appreciate 
the  extraordinary  tenacity  with  which  the 
successive  generations  cleave  to  the  smaller 
things  of  cult.  These  latter  are  felt  to  be  part 
of  the  spell  which  is  exercised  upon  us  by  an 
immemorial  tradition,  a  spell  that  is  all  the 
stronger  because  it  works  upon  the  "  sub- 
conscious" self;  and  those  who  maintain  them 
are  rarely  aware  of  the  aboriginal  reason  which 
prompts  them.  And  often  the  question  about 
the  symbols  or  the  sacred  objects  of  worship, 
as  distinct  from  the  ideas  and  personalities, 
becomes  obviously  of  prime  importance  for 
the  comparison  and  classification  of  religions. 
Thus  the  distinction  between  iconic  or  idola- 
trous and  aniconic  or  non-idolatrous  cults 
is  of  deep  significance,  for  it  may  correspond 
to  the  distinction  between  a  more  and  a  less 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    41 

anthropomorphic  conception  of  the  divinity, 
or  to  a  behef  that  the  embodiment  of  him 
in  material  objects  is  right  and  seemly  or 
wrong  and  unseemly.  The  more  spiritual  a 
religion  becomes,  the  greater  is  its  inclination 
to  dispense  with  the  idol  and  even  to  reprobate 
it ;  the  worshipper  of  Jahve  was  thus  set  in 
antagonism  to  the  surrounding  tribes,  and  in  the 
Iranian  region  the  Zarathustrian  votary  to  the 
worshipper  of  the  Dae  vas.  The  history  of  Chris- 
tianity in  regard  to  this  matter  is  familiar  to  us 
all :  in  spite  of  the  vehement  protests  of  its 
apostles  and  earlier  propagandists  who  in- 
herited the  spiritual  Judaic  view,  we  know  that 
all  the  efforts  of  the  iconoclastic  emperors 
could  not  suppress  the  veneration  of  images  in 
the  later  period.  Even  in  the  Teutonic  north, 
Christianity  came,  in  the  days  before  the  Refor- 
mation, to  assume  an  iconic  character  which  is 
not  accounted  for  by  the  ancestral  tradition 
of  our  pagan  forefathers  :  who  certainly  carved 
images,  in  spite  of  what  Tacitus  tells  us,  but 
do  not  appear  to  have  been  markedly  idola- 


42     The   Evolution  of  Religion 

trous.  We  infallibly  detect  here  the  abiding 
influence  of  Greco-Roman  paganism,  in  which 
idolatry  had  taken  so  deep  a  root,  satisfying 
as  it  did  the  artistic-religious  cravings  of  the 
people.  We  have  records  of  the  transforma- 
tion of  the  old  statues  into  Christian  images ; 
in  an  epigram  we  find  Heracles  pathetically 
complaining  that  he  is  forced  to  become 
St  Luke  :  ^  a  beautiful  head  of  Aphrodite  in 
Athens  is  rudely  stamped  with  the  cross, 
perhaps  to  convert  her  into  the  Virgin  :  ^  at  the 
present  day  there  exists  in  South  Italy  an 
image  of  a  Madonna  del  Granato,  holding  a 
pomegranate,  which  by  a  curious  chain  of 
evidence  can  be  traced  with  some  probability 
back  to  the  Hera  of  Argos,  carved  by 
Polycleitos. 

Now  the  image  may  be  regarded  in  two 
aspects  :  as  a  symbol  merely  bringing  close  to 
the   sense   the  spiritual   idea  of  divinity,  and 


1  Anth.  Pal.  xi.  269,  "  I  am  Heracles,,  the  triumphant  son 
of  Zeus  ;  I  am  not  Luke,  but  they  compel  me." 

2  Ephemeris  Archaiologike,  1900,  ttiV.  5. 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    43 

serving  to  stimulate  the  prayerful  thought  of 
the  worshipper :  or  it  may  be  venerated  as  the 
indwelhng  abode  of  the  divinity,  in  which  he 
habitually  resides,  or  into  which,  by  spells  and 
blood-offerings,  he  may  be  compelled  to  enter. 
The  first  is  the  more  spiritual  and  advanced  point 
of  view,  the  orthodox  aspect  of  the  image  in 
the  iconic  churches  of  Christendom  at  most 
periods  ;  and  this  is  put  forward  as  an  apology 
for  what  may  seem  idolatry :  we  may  note  in 
passing  that  the  same  apology  was  put  forward 
by  the  advanced  champions  of  paganism.  The 
second  is  the  more  primitive  view,  accepted  at 
most  periods  by  the  people,  and  sometimes 
tolerated  or  even  encouraged  by  certain  of  the 
churches:  the  idol  is  regarded  as  miraculous, 
as  infused  with  divine  power,  perhaps  itself  the 
very  divinity  ;  and  the  uncultured  Greeks  who 
whipped  the  idol  of  Pan  with  squills  if  food 
was  scarce,^  or  bound  the  image  of  Aphrodite 
with  cords  to  prevent  it  running  away,^  the 

1  Theocritus,  Id.  7,  106. 

2  Cults  of  Greek  States,  vol.  ii.  p.  735  :  R.  256. 


44     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

Breton  smith  mentioned  by  Renan,  who 
threatened  the  saint's  image  with  red-hot 
pincers  to  compel  him  to  heal  his  son,  the 
modern  savage  who  smears  his  idols  with 
blood, ^  are  to  be  classed  together  in  the 
morphology  of  religion. 

Idolatry  in  this  sense  is  a  higher  form  of 
fetichism,  which,  strictly  defined,  is  the  venera- 
tion of  material  objects,  often  shaped  by  art 
and  handled  in  such  a  way  as  to  endow  them 
with  divine  potency,  which  bring  good  fortune 
to  the  owner.  It  is  supposed  to  connote 
savagery,  but  survivals  of  it  are  found  in  most 
civilised  communities,  and  we  probably  all 
inherit  some  faint  impress  of  the  fetichistic 
spirit,  nor  need  we  be  startled  if  we  find  it  in 
the  higher  religions. 

In  ancient  Greece  the  fetich  was  common 
enough :  sacred  axes,  sacred  sceptres,  pyra- 
midical   or  cone-shaped   stones,    rudely  hewn 

1  Cf.  the  method  of  Greco-Egyptian  magic  of  strangling 
birds  before  the  idol  of  Eros,  in  order  that  their  breath  may 
animate  it,  mentioned  in  an  Abraxas  papyrus,  Class.  Rev. 
1896,  p.  409. 


Comparative   Study  of  Religions    45 

tree-stumps,  are  examples  which  we  find  in 
the  hterature  and  art  of  the  historic  or  pre- 
historic periods  ;  the  most  common  kind  of 
private  fetich  was  the  gem,  carried  as  an 
amulet.  This  superstitious  view  of  gems 
belonging  to  primitive  faith  has  continued 
through  many  ages.  Moreover,  both  in  the 
public  and  private  religion  of  Christendom  in 
many  periods,  and  even  at  the  present  time, 
we  can  easily  recognise  the  fetichistic  value  of 
the  sacred  objects,  relics,  crucifixes ;  and  the 
Bible  itself  might  sometimes  be  carried  as  an 
amulet  about  the  person  to  secure  one  from 
danger,  and  its  modern  use  in  the  English 
legal  oath,  the  witness  "kissing  the  book," 
conforms  to  a  fetichistic  type  of  oath  which 
was  common  in  the  primitive  Teutonic  com- 
munities.^ When  Tertullian  exclaims,  ''  How 
great  is  the  difference  between  the  wood  of 
the  cross  and  the  shapeless  wooden  emblems 
of  Pallas  or  Ceres,"  ^  he  is  thinking  generally 

1  Vide  Schrader,  Real-Lexikon ,  s.v.  Eid. 

2  Ad  Nat.  i.  12. 


46     The  Evolution   of  Religion 

of  the  wide  difference  between  Christianity 
and  Hellenic  polytheism.  As  regards  the 
attitude  of  the  Christian  and  pagan  wor- 
shippers towards  these  emblems  of  their  cult 
which  Tertulhan  mentions,  we  are  not  sure 
that  any  such  general  distinction  could  be 
drawn.  The  "  adoration  of  the  true  wood  of 
the  cross,"  of  which  we  have  heard  in  recent 
times,  if  we  merely  consider  the  nature  of  the 
religious  object  and  the  value  of  the  material 
thing  for  faith,  must  be  called  fetichistic  :  at 
least  I  know  of  no  other  word  equally  appro- 
priate in  the  terminology  of  the  science  of 
religions.  Doubtless  the  modern  mind,  in  the 
performance  of  such  ritual  practices,  can  dis- 
tinguish between  the  inanimate  or  material 
thing  and  the  divine  spirit  which  sanctifies  it. 
But  so  also  can  the  intelligent  savage,  who 
cares  nothing  for  his  piece  of  wood  when  he 
thinks  the  power-giving  spirit  has  departed 
from  it.  The  fetichism  then  of  the  higher 
religions  and  of  the  savage  faith  is  morpho- 
logically the  same ;  the  vital  difference  lies  in 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    47 

the  conception  of  the  divinity  that  is  supposed 
to  animate  or  sanctify  the  material  thing. 

It  would  be  wrong  to  attribute  the  fetichistic 
procHvities  discovered  in  the  Christian  com- 
munities wholly  to  the  Hellenic  or  Mediterranean 
strain  in  our  religion  ;  for  we  must  reckon  with 
the  survival  among  the  later  ritual-observances 
of  the  superstitions  of  the  Northern  peoples,  and 
fetichism  was  certainly  characteristic  of  the 
early  Teutonic,  Celtic,  and  Slavonic  races.  In 
this  matter,  as  in  others,  we  have  to  note  that 
the  puritanism  of  the  early  Church  could  not 
prevail  against  the  strength  of  habit  and  im- 
memorial tradition. 

The  illustration  of  this  group  of  affinities  may 
conclude  with  the  observation  that  the  most  cher- 
ished emblem  of  our  creed,  the  type  of  the  cross 
itself,  had  already  been  in  vogue  as  a  religious 
symbol  of  certain  of  the  earlier  pagan  peoples  ; 
it  played  a  part  in  the  ancient  Egyptian  ^  and 

1  The  Tatu^  Tat,  or  Ded  pillar  erected  in  the  ritual  of 
Osiris,  perhaps  as  a  symbol  of  the  resurrection  of  the  god, 
had  the  form  of  a  cross :  vide  Frazer,  Golden  BougU^\  ii.  p.  141. 


48     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

Assyrian  ritual,  and  recently  Dr  Evans  has 
revealed  to  us  in  the  Palace  of  Minos  in 
Crete  a  chapel  of  the  cross  dedicated  to 
the  worship  of  the  divine  mother/  We  can 
go  no  further  than  the  surmise  that  the 
propagation  of  Christianity  may  have  been 
assisted  by  the  fact  that  the  emblem  of  the 
new  faith  would  not  appear  wholly  unfamiliar 
to  some  of  the  converted  races. 

As  regards  the  affinities  discernible  in  re- 
spect of  hieratic  institutions,  the  organisation 
of  churches,  the  relations  of  Church  and  State, 
I  have  only  space  to  cite  a  few  salient  illustra- 
tions. The  earliest  Christian  Church,  a  private 
religious  society  united  by  the  bond  of  faith, 
the  members  contributing  to  each  other's 
wants,  with  a  simple  democratic  organisation 
of  ecclesia  and  sacred  officials,  would  not  strike 
the  contemporary  Greco-Roman  world  as  an 
unfamiliar  phenomenon ;    for   its   family  like- 

1  Vide  Palace  of  Knossos  :  Provisional  Report  for  year 
1903,  p.  92  :  the  writer  quotes  Babylonian  and  Assyrian 
examples. 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    49 

ness  to  the  Hellenic  "  thiasoi "  or  brotherhoods 
of  cult  was  sufficiently  obvious,  and  has  often 
been  commented  on.  They,  like  it,  were 
often  proselytisers,  and,  ignoring  the  barriers 
of  caste,  gens,  and  city,  accepted  in  principle 
the  religious  fellowship  of  man.  "It  is  well 
to  consider  all  men  friends  and  brothers,  as 
being  the  family  of  God,"  says  Apollonius,^ 
echoing  the  doctrine  of  the  Stoics.  The  soil 
was  ready  prepared  for  the  new  cosmopolitan 
religion. 

In  considering  the  history  of  the  hierarchy 
in  Christendom,  we  are  often  obliged  to  turn 
our  eyes  back  upon  the  pre-Christian  period. 
For  instance,  the  insistence  on  the  apostolic 
succession  in  the  various  churches,  a  primary 

1  Epist.  395  :  the  doctrines  of  the  Orphic  sects  from 
the  fourth  century  b.c.  onwards  also  emphasised  the  kin- 
ship of  man  with  God^  as  the  well-known  Orphic  tablets, 
found  in  South  Italy  and  Crete,  reveal  (Hell.  Joi/rn.  3, 
p.  112:  Miss  J.  Harrison^  Prolegoynena  to  the  Study  of  Greek 
Religion :  Appendix  by  Prof.  Murray^  p.  660).  In  the 
pseudo-Platonic  Aodochis,  p.  371  D,  the  sick  man  is 
assured    of  salvation    as    being    ''  of  the  family  of  God  " 

4 


50     The   Evolution  of  Religion 

article  of  faith  with  many  at  the  present  time, 
is  entirely  in  keeping  with  a  very  old  Mediter- 
ranean tradition:  for  we  find  it  not  in- 
frequently maintained  in  Hellenic  paganism 
that  the  priest  should  descend  directly  from 
the  god  whom  he  serves,  or  from  the  first 
apostle  who  instituted  the  particular  cult  or 
mystery  ;  ^  we  hear  of  the  priest  being  quah- 
fied  "  by  descent  and  by  divine  appointment."^ 
But  in  the  earlier  religious  period  the  succes- 
sion or  descent  was  regarded  in  the  linear  and 
physical  sense:  this  has  become  refined  into 
the  idea  of  a  spiritual  succession,  maintained 
however  by  a  continuity  of  physical  though 
mystic  contact.  Here,  as  so  often  in  the 
comparative  study  of  religion,  we  have  to  note 

1  E.g.  a  priest  of  Megalopolis,  a  hierophantes  of  the 
Great  Goddesses,  is  spoken  of  as  descended  from  "those 
who  first  established  the  mystic  worship  of  the  Great 
Goddesses  among  the  Arcadians,"  Eph.  Archaiol.  1896,  p. 
122  :  the  priests  of  Poseidon  at  Halikarnassos  traced  their 
descent  from  those  who  brought  his  cult  from  Troezen  at 
the  foundation  of  the  city,  C.I.G.  2655. 

2  At  Cos,  vide  Paton  and  Hicks,  Inscriptions  of  Cos, 
No.  103  (Roman  Imperial  period). 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    51 

the  physical  and  material  ideas  of  the  more 
primitive  period  maintaining  themselves  in 
the  later  but  translated  into  a  spiritual 
significance. 

The  relation  between  the  priesthood  and  the 
State  has  been  one  of  the  burning  questions  of 
the  secular  and  religious  history  of  Europe. 
To  understand  fully  all  the  features  in  the 
State  organisation  of  the  Church  and  the 
many  points  of  controversy,  we  need  often 
to  go  far  back  into  the  records  of  early  Aryan 
and  Mediterranean  society.  We  may  mark 
here  and  there  in  the  pagan  Anatolian  region 
the  emergence  of  the  idea  that  the  priest 
should  be  temporal  lord/  while  in  most  early 
Aryan  societies  the  subordination  of  the 
spiritual  to  the  secular  power  appears  to  have 
been  maintained.  A  study  of  the  sagas  of  the 
North  suggests  the  reflection  that  the  struggle 
fought  out  to  a  definite  decision  at  the  Refor- 
mation   had    already    been    decided    in    the 

1  E.g.  the  priest  of  Cybele  at  Pessinus,  and  the  priest  of 
Ma  in  the  two  Comanas. 


52     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

Teutonic  North  in  the  far-off  days  before 
Christianity  ;  ^  also  that  the  secular  character  of 
the  married  English  priesthood  in  our  pre- 
Conquest  period  is  only  the  reflex  of  old 
Teutonic  custom. 

The  celibacy  of  the  priesthood  is,  again,  a 
question  that  has  agitated  and  divided  the 
churches,  nor  does  it  appear  that  we  ourselves 
have  finished  with  it.  To  trace  its  origin  and 
inner  significance,  a  wide  anthropological  study 
is  necessary,  and  I  may  be  able  to  return  to 
it  in  another  association  in  a  later  lecture. 
Within  the  history  of  the  Church,  we  may 
trace  back  the  religious  ideas  underlying  the 
dogma  of  celibacy  to  the  ascetic  enthusiasm  of 
the  third  and  fourth  centuries,  and  we  may  be 
right  in  connecting  it  with  the  growth  of 
Mariolatry.  But  the  original  source  of  the 
phenomenon  lies  far  in  the  background  of  our 
rehgion  ;  the  impulse  to  religious  celibacy  had 
long  been   congenial   to   the  temperament  of 

1  Vide  Golther,  Handbuch  der  germanischen  Mythologie, 
p.  612,  617. 


Comparative  Study   of  Religions    53 

some  of  the  Anatolian  races.  We  find  it  power- 
ful in  the  Judaic  sect  of  the  Essenians  ;  and  in 
the  anthropology  of  primitive  societies  we  are 
often  confronted  with  the  idea  that  the  virgin 
body  is  the  only  fit  organ  for  the  full  divine 
afflatus. 

In  another  question  of  administration,  in  the 
position  of  women  in  regard  to  the  ministry, 
we  can  trace  the  opposing  forces  of  differing 
pre-Christian  traditions.^  Their  present  total 
exclusion  from  sacred  functions  in  all  but  a 
few  sects  shows  the  triumph  of  the  Judaic 
rule  sanctioned  and  insisted  upon  by  St  Paul ; 
it  is  not  at  all  in  accordance  with  Teutonic 
or  Greco-Roman  religious  custom ;  and  in 
fact  we  find  in  the  early  centuries  of  the 
Church,  when  Greek  influence  was  strongest, 
that  certain  offices  of  the  ministry  could  be 
fulfilled  by  women ;  we  even  hear  of  a  heretic 
sect  in  the  fifth  century  that  signalised  itself 
by  the  orgiastic  processions  of  the  "  priestesses 

1  Fide  my  paper  in  the  Arckiv  fur  Religionswisseiischaft, 
1904,  on  ^^The  Position  of  Women  in  Ancient  Religion." 


54     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

of  the  Virgin  Mary.'"  It  is  still  possible  that 
the  old  Teutonic  view  in  this  matter  may 
reassert  itself. 

If  we  try  to  give  a  complete  account  of 
any  of  the  important  institutions  of  the 
churches,  infant  baptism  or  the  Eoman 
confession  for  instance,  we  ought  at  least, 
before  we  can  pronounce  that  any  particular 
one  is  a  spontaneous  or  a  unique  growth,  to 
survey  the  religions  contiguous  to  or  immedi- 
ately preceding  Christianity.  As  regards  the 
practice  of  confession,  a  usage  which,  as  I  hope 
to  show,  may  be  explained  as  connected  with 
a  ritual  of  purification,  its  institution  cannot 
at  least  be  regarded  as  a  unique  phenomenon 
in  the  early  Church.  A  very  simple  form  of 
it  appears  to  have  been  known  to  the  Judaic 
system,  and  it  appears  as  a  formal  element 
in  the  Babylonian  liturgy:^  as  a  spiritual 
relief  to  which  a  man  might  voluntarily 
resort,   it   was    encouraged    by    the    Delphic 

^    Vide  infra,  p.  72. 

2  See  King,  Babylonian  Religion,  p.  211. 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    55 

oracle ;  ^  as  part  of  the  cathartic  ritual  which 
was  preliminary  to  initiation  it  was  required 
by  the  ordinances  of  the  Samothracian 
Mysteries ;  and  it  is  in  an  anecdote  con- 
cerning these  that  we  meet  with  the  first 
example  of  the  free  Protestant  spirit  repro- 
bating the  practice.^  We  may  infer  that  it 
was  uncongenial  to  the  character  and  alien 
to  the  tradition  of  our  Teutonic  forefathers, 
in  the  record  of  whose  pagan  institutions  there 
is  no  hint  of  it,  and  Alcuin  complains  of  his 
Goths  "  that  no  one  of  the  laity  was  wilhng 
to  confess  to  the  priests."  ^  It  may  well  have 
been  a  spontaneous  growth  of  southern 
Christianity  ;  but  it  appears  to  have  arisen 
first   within   the   early   monastic   orders,*  and 

1  Fide  chapter  on  "Apollo  Cult"  in  my  forthcoming 
fourth  volume  of  Cults. 

2  Plutarch,  Apophtheg.  Lacon.  p.  229  D :  Lysander  is 
told  by  the  priest  that  before  initiation  he  must  confess 
his  worst  sin :  he  asks  if  this  was  the  gods'  command  or 
the  priests',  and  on  hearing  that  it  was  the  gods  who 
enjoined  it,  he  replied,  "  Then  do  you  stand  aside  and  I 
will  tell  the  gods  if  they  ask  me." 

3  0pp.  Ep.  9^. 

^    Vide  Herzog,  Real-Ena/clopddie,  s.v.  Beichte. 


56     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

as  these  in  their  origin  had  certain  affinities 
with  the  non-Christian  mystic  brotherhoods, 
where  the  practice  was  not  unknown,  it  is 
possible  that  in  this  matter  also  a  pre-Christian 
tradition  was  still  of  some  effect.  Or,  if  this 
is  unlikely,  we  must  maintain  that  like 
conditions  evolve  similar  products  over  the 
whole  area  with  which  comparative  religion 
deals  ;  and  the  most  striking  resemblance  to  a 
Christian  confessional  is  to  be  observed  in  the 
old  Mexican  ritual,  if  we  can  trust  Sahagun/ 
As  regards  the  other  suggested  example,  we 
should  probably  find,  if  we  followed  out  the 
history  and  origin  of  infant  baptism,  that  the 
pre-Christian  tradition  was  a  strong  efficient 
force  in  the  settlement  of  the  question ;  there 
were  urgent  reasons  at  least  why  the  rite 
should  soon  have  come  to  be  maintained  by 
the  early  Church,  for  analogous  rites  whereby 
the  new-born  child  was  consecrated  to  the 
divinity  were  probably  part  of  the  hereditary 
tradition   of    most    of    the    converted    races. 

1  Jourdanet  et  Simeon^  p.  24. 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    57 

We  know  that  many  of  the  Hellenes  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  passing  the  infant 
solemnly  round  the  fire,  a  purificatory  and  also 
consecrating  process ;  ^  the  northern  Teutons 
sprinkled  the  infant  with  water  :^  and  when 
Aristotle  tells  us  that  many  of  the  barbarian 
tribes  were  in  the  habit  of  plunging  the  new- 
born into  river- water,  to  harden  the  little  ones, 
he  is  mistaking  a  religious  for  a  secular 
practice.^  Looking  at  the  baptism  of  the 
adult  neophyte,  we  find  interesting  resem- 
blances to  the  ceremonies  of  the  pre-Christian 
mystic  initiations  ;  the  idea  commonly  ex- 
pressed in  these  latter,  that  the  catechumen 
died  to  his  old  life  and  was  born  again,  was 
eagerly  adopted  and  developed  by  the  later 
religion,  and  here  as  there  left  its  imprint  on 
the  ritual ;  death  and  rebirth  were  actually 
simulated  in  the  mystic  service/ 

1  Heszch,  6'.v.  '  A/xfjjiSpofjiLa. 

2  Fide  Golther,  op.  cit.  p.  555.  3  Po/«7.  p.  1336  B. 
*  In  the  Attis  Mysteries  the  reborn  and  initiated  were 

fed  on  milk — Sallustius,  De  Diis  et  Mundo,  4  :  for  a  care- 
ful treatment  of  the  whole  question,  vide  Dieterich,  Eine 


58     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

The  affinities  between  Christian  and  pagan 
ritual,  in  many  eases  no  doubt  the  result  of 
direct  inheritance,  demand  a  more  detailed 
investigation  than  they  have  yet  received, 
especially  in  respect  of  the  festival  calendar: 
even  the  early  writers  of  the  Church  were  of 
opinion  that  the  feast  of  the  Purification  of 
the  Virgin  Mary  in  February,  was  a  develop- 
ment of  the  old  Roman  Februaha  instituted 
by  Numa ;  ^  and  such  names  of  Christian  saints 
and  bishops  as  Hilarion,  Hilarius,  attest  the 
popularity  of  the  Hilaria,  the  festival  of 
Adonis  in  the  last  days  of  paganism.  Much 
might  be  still  discovered  by  a  minute  know- 
ledge of  the  Greco-Roman  records,  combined 
with  travel  in  Mediterranean  lands  and  with 
personal  observation  of  the  ritual  of  feast-  and 
fast-days  in  the  remoter  villages.^ 

Mithras-Liturgie,  Tpp.  157-178:  for  various  savage  parallels 
showing  the  prevalence  in  primitive  societies  of  the  idea 
of  death  and  rebirth  at  initiation,  vide  Frazer,  Golden 
Bough,  vol.  iii.  pp.  424-446, 

1  Vide  Herzog,  Real-EncycL,  xii.  p.  319. 

2  Vide  Trede,  Das  Heidenthum  in  der  romischen  Kirche, 
vol.  i.  p.  280,  "  Neue  und  alte  Fest-Lust." 


Comparative   Study  of  Religions    59 

Finally,  there  remains  the  question,  of  greater 
moment  and  perplexity  than  all  the  preceding, 
concerning  the  affinities  of  the  Christian  and 
pre-Christian  religions  in  primary  ideas  and 
essential  belief.  To  point  out  resemblances 
is  not  necessarily  to  ignore  contrasts ;  only 
it  is  of  more  avail  for  present  science  to 
emphasise  the  former,  as  the  latter  are  obvious 
enough  and  have  always  been  emphasised. 
But  we  must  guard  against  accepting  too 
rashly  the  fact  of  resemblance  for  proof  of 
actual  origin ;  nor  must  we  ignore  the  truth 
that  two  religions  may  be  vitally  different  in 
effect,  while  they  use  the  same  materials  of 
thought  and  belief.  The  subject  demands 
great  knowledge  and  critical  insight,  and  I 
can  only  indicate  here  clues  that  have  already 
been  followed  and  might  be  followed  further. 
There  is  probably  no  need  to  call  to  your 
notice  the  fact  that  the  incarnation  of  the 
Godhead  in  human  form  was  a  familiar  con- 
ception to  the  civilised  and  half-civilised  races 
of  the  old  world,  and  was  attached  equally  to 


6o     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

mythic  personages  as  well  as  to  actual  men. 
That  such  a  personality  could  serve  as  a 
mediator  between  man  and  the  Supreme  God 
was  conceivable  to  the  Hellenic,  Egyptian, 
even  the  Latin  imagination  ;  and  though  the 
idea  does  not  seem  to  have  been  woven  into 
any  fabric  of  faith  by  these  races,  it  appears 
as  a  natural  product  in  the  higher  stages  of 
polytheism,  and  in  many  primitive  and 
advanced  societies  it  has  dominated  men's 
views  concerning  the  person  and  position  of 
the  King. 

More  important  still  for  the  purposes  of  the 
religious  comparison  is  the  wide  prevalence  in 
the  Mediterranean  communities  of  the  belief 
in  the  death  and  resurrection  of  the  divinity  : 
and  this  has  been  the  theme  of  much  recent 
anthropological    investigation.^     This    is    not 

1  Fide  Frazer's  Golden  Bough,  passim,  especially  vol.  ii. 
pp.  115-168  (death  and  resurrection  in  rites  of  Adonis, 
Attis,  Osiris,  Dionysos),  and  vol.  iii.  pp.  138-200:  cf. 
articles  by  Bernard  Cook  in  Classical  Review,  1903,  1904,  on 
"■  Zeus  Jupiter  and  the  Oak  "  :  we  must  distinguish  between 
the  simulated  death  of  the  divine  effigy,  and  the  simu- 
lated or  real  death  of  the  human  representative  of  divinity. 


Comparative   Study  of  Religions    6i 

the  time  to  examine  into  its  origin  and  signi- 
ficance or  to  track  out  the  various  phenomena 
that  illustrate  and  group  themselves  around 
it  in  the  Mediterranean  cults.  I  would 
merely  call  attention  in  passing  to  the  fact 
that  the  belief  existed,  and  was  probably  ex- 
pressed in  the  pre-Christian  ritual  of  St 
Paul's  own  city  of  Tarsos,^  and  that  it  was 
especially  strong  in  the  Attis  Mysteries  of  the 
Great  Mother  of  Phrygia  and  Crete  ;  we  know 
that  these  were  celebrated  at  a  season  which 
corresponded  to  the  end  of  our  Lenten  period 
and  the  beginning  of  Easter,  that  they  were 
preceded  by  fasting  and  began  with  lamenta- 

In  Hellenic  religion  we  can  trace  the  idea  in  the  worship 
of  Pan,  in  the  legends  and  ritual  of  Artemis-Iphigenia  and 
Aphrodite,  vide  Cults  of  the  Greek  States,  vol.  ii.  pp.  440- 
442,  Q50-Q59.,  and  in  the  Cretan  worship  of  Zeus,  vol.  i. 
pp.  36-38  ;  but  it  had  lost  its  vitality  in  the  purely  Hellenic 
cults  of  the  classical  period,  and  was  only  real  and  energetic 
in  the  legends  and  ritual  of  Adonis  and  Dionysos. 

1  Vide  Dio  Chrys.,  vol.  ii.  p.  l6  (Dindorf),  and  K.  O. 
Miiller's  Sardon  wid  Sardanapal  (Kleine  Schriften,  vol.  ii. 
p.  1 00)  :  on  a  coin  published  in  British  Museum  Catalogue, 
''Lycaonia,"  etc.,  pi.  xxxiii.  2,  p.  180,  we  see  the  god  on 
his  lion  standing  on  what  may  be  his  pyre. 


62     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

tions,  the  votaries  gathering  in  sorrow  around 
the  bier  of  the  dead  divinity ;  then  followed 
the  resurrection,  and  the  risen  god  gave  hope 
of  salvation  to  the  mystic  brotherhood,  and 
the  whole  service  closed  with  the  feast  of 
rejoicing,  the  Hilaria/  The  Christian  fathers 
themselves  were  struck  with  the  deep  resem- 
blance between  this  and  their  own  mystery, 
and  they  were  tempted  to  attribute  it  to  the 
diabolic  spirit  of  parody.  We  may  take  the 
words  of  Firmicus  Maternus,^  with  which  he 
concludes  his  description  of  such  an  Attis 
Mystery  as  I  have  outlined — "  truly  the  devil 
has  Christians  of  his  own" — as  the  text  of 
a  very  important  chapter  in  comparative 
religion.  We  hear  of  a  Christian  convert  in 
Crete  being  seduced  by  the  fascinations  of  the 
Hilaria ;  and  Phrygia,  its  ancestral  home,  was 
one  of  the  earliest  strongholds  of  Christian- 
ity.    Here  at  least  we  may  assume  that  the 

1  Fide  especially  Hippol.,  Ref.  Haeres.  5,  p.  118  (Miller) : 
Macrob.,  Sahmi.  1,  21,  7:  Arnobius,  Adv.  Gent.  5,  7,  l6; 
7,  49:  Julian,  Or.  5,  l68  C. 

2  De  error,  c.  22. 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    63 

ancient  dogma  and  ritual  of  the  people  was 
one  of  the  predisposing  causes  operating  in 
favour  of  the  new. 

The  comparative  student  must  also  give 
careful  consideration  to  what  are  called  the 
eschatologic  doctrines,  the  beliefs  concerning 
posthumous  happiness,  salvation,  and  damna- 
tion, not  only  of  the  Judaic,  but  also  of  the 
Hellenic,  Anatolian,  and  Egyptian  religions: 
and  especially  to  those  of  the  Hellenic,  for  it  was 
they  that  were  most  widely  known  in  the  area 
of  the  Greco-Roman  world,  and  modern  theory 
has  at  times  endeavoured  to  trace  back  the 
apocalyptic  literature  of  Christianity  to  Hellenic 
sources/  The  investigation  would  demand  a 
careful  study  of  the  Eleusinian  and  the  Orphic 
Mysteries,  in  both  of  which  we  find  the  preg- 
nant idea  that  salvation  after  death  depended 

1  For  the  Greek  origin  of  the  Christian  apocalyptical 
literature,  vide  Dieterich,  Beitrage  zur  Erklarung  der  neu- 
entdeckten  Petrus  Apokalypse,  Leipzig,  1893.  The  clearest 
trace  of  Orphic  influence  on  historic  Christianity  is  the 
doctrine  of  purgatory,  which  was  popularised  for  the 
later  ages  by  Vergil's  Vlth  Mneid :  vide  especially  the 
purgatorial  theory  in  Servius'  Commentary,  Mn.  vi.  741. 


64     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

on  a  religious  act  of  faith  or  on  a  mystic 
communion  with  a  divinity  that  might  be 
attained  on  earth  by  a  sacrament  or  other 
liturgical  means:  and  the  inquiry  will  in- 
clude the  question  how  far  in  these  earlier 
systems  the  doctrine  of  salvation  by  faith 
was  actually  blended  with  any  admixture 
of  the  ethical  doctrine  of  salvation  by 
works.  And  the  problem,  like  many  others 
in  the  scientific  study  of  religion,  will  be 
found  to  concern  philosophic  as  well  as 
religious  history. 

The  ideas  attaching  to  sacrifice  in  the  Medi- 
terranean world  have  long  been  recognised  as 
a  vital  subject  of  inquiry  for  the  comparative 
science ;  and  both  the  lower  and  the  higher 
anthropology  can  contribute  much  that  is 
essential  to  the  full  understanding  of  the 
evolution  of  the  Christian  doctrine  concern- 
ing the  divine  sacrifice  and  the  Holy  Com- 
munion. I  need  not  here  enlarge  on  this 
subject,  even  by  way  of  mere  illustration,  for 
I  have  already  dealt  with  it,  however  inade- 


Comparative   Study   of  Religions     65 

quately,  in  a  former  paper  :  ^  it  is  an  intricate  and 
fascinating  theme  and  invites  further  research. 
But  for  proving  the  revival  on  the  new 
Christian  soil  of  the  older  pre  -  Christian 
religious  thought  and  aspiration,  there  is  no 
special  subject  so  fruitful  as  the  study  of 
Mariolatry.  I  have  already  suggested  by 
way  of  illustration  the  possibility  of  such 
pagan  titles  as  "  Kore-Parthenos,"  the  "  Gods' 
mother,"  having  exercised  an  abiding  influence 
in  exciting  and  shaping  the  nascent  thought 
of  earlier  Christendom ;  and  I  affirmed  that 
their  prevalence  corresponded  to  a  prevailing 
religious  bias  which  turned  the  minds  of 
many  of  the  peoples  in  the  old  world  to 
cleave  affectionately  to  the  mother-goddess 
or  to  the  divine  maid.  Apart  from  mere 
titles,  the  student  of  the  latter  days  of 
paganism  is  forced  to  note  at  almost  every 
point  the  deep  impress  of  such  ideas  and  the 
enthusiasm  they  evoked.  In  all  the  leading 
Greek   mysteries,  the  Mother  and  the  Maid 

1  Hibhert  Journal^  January  1901-. 


66     The  Evolution  of  Pvcligion 

held  a  dominant  position,  and  the  Orphic 
brotherhoods  had  ranged  the  Mother  by  the 
side  of  the  Son-God  and  the  Father-God ; 
and  even  in  the  state-cults  of  the  ancient 
centres  of  Hellenic  civilisation,  the  maternal 
character  of  the  divine  power  had  long  been 
cherished.  Finally,  the  Phrygian  religion  of 
the  Mother,  to  which  even  Mithraism,  a  pre- 
eminently masculine  or  paternal  religion,  was 
obliged  to  accommodate  itself,  had  captured  the 
greater  part  of  the  Greco-Roman  world ;  and 
was  certainly  very  influential  in  the  districts  of 
Asia  Minor  visited  by  St  Paul  and  in  every  one 
of  the  cities  of  the  Seven  Churches.  The  senti- 
ment it  evoked  is  expressed  by  the  words  of  a 
poet  of  the  Middle  Attic  comedy  :  "  For  those 
who  have  true  knowledge  of  things  divine,  there 
is  nothing  greater  than  the  JVIother  ;  hence  the 
first  man  who  became  civilised  founded  the 
shrine  of  the  Mother."^  This  then  is  a  lead- 
ing factor  in  the  religious  psychology  of  the 
converted  nations  with  which  we  must  reckon. 

1  Alexis  in  Stobaeus^  Florileg.  (Meineke)^  vol.  iii.  p.  83. 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    67 

We  cannot,  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of 
human  nature,  suppose  that  a  religious  tra- 
dition of  such  hereditary  power  as  this  could 
wholly  lose  its  force  under  a  changed  creed. 
The  gaps  in  the  record  will  probably  make  it 
impossible  to  supply  a  detailed  and  geogra- 
phical statement  showing  how  in  the  various 
communities  of  the  ancient  cult  the  person- 
ality of  the  pre-Christian  goddess  was  fused 
gradually  with  the  ideal  image  of  the  Virgin- 
Mother  of  Christ.  Only  a  few  suggestive 
facts  in  the  development  and  organisation 
of  Mariolatry  may  be  mentioned  here.  The 
heretic  Montanists  of  Phrygia  were  charged 
with  deifying  the  Virgin  and  believing  that 
one  of  their  leaders  was  united  in  a  mystic 
marriage  with  her,  a  belief  natural  to  Phry- 
gian paganism ;  and  their  founder  Montanus 
is  said  to  have  originally  been  a  priest  of 
Cybele.^      The   mother   of   Constantine,    the 

1  Vide  Herzog,  Real-Encycl.,  s.v.  "  Montanismus "  :  cf. 
the  article  there  on  "Maria"  and  the  chapter  in  Trede, 
op.  cit.  vol.  ii.,  "Die  grosse  Mutter." 


68     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

Empress   Helena,  who   is    supposed    to   have 
been    of    Bithynian    origin,   was    praised    for 
decking  the  grotto  of  Bethlehem  with  sacred 
gifts    as    the    shrine    of    the   Virgin;^    it    is 
noteworthy  that  her  earhest  recorded  chapel 
should   be  a  grotto   or   cave;    for   it  was   in 
such  underground  shrines  that  the   Phrygian 
Mother   was    commonly    worshipped    in    her 
own     land.       Another     striking    analogy    to 
the   ancient   ritual  of  the   mother-goddess  is 
presented    by   the    feast    called    the    KOLfxrja-Ls 
and    avd\r)^L<;    rrj<;    OeoTOKov,   first    mentioned 
by   Andreas    of    Crete    {circ.    650   a.d.),  but 
probably  in   existence   long   before  his  time: 
the  Mother  of  God  dies  and  rises  again   in 
the    Assumption.      It   would    be    of    special 
interest  if  we  could  discover  that  this  ritual 
first    became   canonical   in    Crete,   the    home 
of    Andreas ;     for    in    Crete    as    in    Cyprus, 
where  the  Virgin  succeeded   to  the  name  of 
Aphrodite,  we  have  traces  of  a  similar  rite  in 
which   the   goddess    Aphrodite  was   laid   out 

1  Euseb.^  V.  Constj  iii.  43,  2. 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    6g 

as  dead  on  a  bier  and  was  afterwards  raised 
to  life/ 

And  is  it  nothing  more  than  a  coincidence 
that  in  the  same  city  of  Ephesus,  where  during 
St  Paul's  visit  the  fanatics  raised  a  tumult 
in  behalf  of  their  Virgin  Artemis,  some  six 
centuries  later  the  people  with  equal  ecstasy- 
hailed  the  decision  of  the  Synod  that  pro- 
claimed the  Virgin-Mother  of  God  {OeoroKos)  ? 
The  mention  of  Ephesus  suggests  another 
consideration  of  the  greatest  importance  for 
the  study  of  the  development  and  propa- 
gation of  the  Christian  dogma  concerning 
the  virginity  of  the  Mother  of  God.  The 
Virgin-birth,  an  idea  which  has  long  been  a 
stumbling-block  to  science,  and  which  has 
recently  been  pronounced  by  some  to  be  un- 
essential to  Christianity,  was  a  dogma  that 
could  easily  be  understood  and  even  eagerly 
accepted  by  the  converts  of  Anatolia  ^  and  the 

1  Vide  Cults  of  the  Greek  States,  pp.  650-652. 

2  One  of  the  Babylonian  goddesses  is  addressed  in  the 
same  hymn  as  "Mother,  wife,  and  maid/'  Jastrow,  Relig. 
Baby  I.  Assyr.,  p.  459. 


70     The   Evolution  of  Religion 

Greek  world.     In  Ephesus  itself  the   ancient 
goddess  had  been  imagined  in  some  sense  as 
a  maternal  or  generative  divinity,  yet  also  as 
a   virgin,    in   whose   ritual,   conducted   partly 
by  a   priesthood   of  monks,  a  strong  rule  of 
austerity   and   chastity   was   enforced.^      The 
great  Phrygian  Mother  was  herself,  according 
to   a  native   legend,    miraculously    conceived, 
and  there  are  grounds  for  suggesting  that  she 
was  occasionally  regarded  as   a   virgin."     The 
evidence  indeed  concerning  such  ideas  in  the 
pre-Christian  cults  is  always  confused,  casual, 
and     often     contradictory,     with     no    power 
apparently  in  themselves   to  develop   a   fixed 
dogma  of  faith.     It  would  be  in  fact  unreason- 
able to  maintain  that  the  Christian  doctrines 
concerning  the  Virgin-Mother  could  have  been 
evoked   merely   by   the   spontaneous  demand 
of  the   Anatolian   or    Greek   converts.      But 
we   may  affirm   that  when  that  doctrine  was 

1  Vide  Cults  of  the  Greek  States,   vol.  ii.,  Artemis,  R  133: 
cf.  Paus.  8,  13,  1. 

2  I  am  treating  this  question  in   an   appendix    to    the 
Cybele  chapter  in  vol.  iii.  of  my  Cults,  etc. 


Comparative   Study  of  Religions     71 

presented   to   them,  their  own  traditions  had 
prepared   their   imaginations   to   receive  it  as 
congenial.     We  meet  in  the  late  pagan  liter- 
ature   passages    in    praise    of   virginity    as   a 
divine   quality  quite  as  ecstatic  and  extrava- 
gant as  many  in  the  Christian  fathers/     Many 
of  the  nations   had   long  cherished  the   ideal 
of  a  virgin  goddess ;  most  had  been  devotees 
of  the  Divine  Mother.     The  successful  pro- 
pagation of  Christianity  may  have  owed  much 
to  the  means  which  it  possessed  for  satisfying 
these    two    sentiments     and    for    reconciling 
them   in   a   primary   article    of  faith.     Then, 
we    must    certainly    ascribe     the    exaltation 
of    Mary    in    the    Church    of    the    first    six 
centuries   to   the   enthusiasm   engendered   by 
the  older  goddess-worships.     Alexandria  may 
have  contributed    much  more  than  we  have 
already    noted ;    and   more    than    one    writer 
has    explored   the   deep    indebtedness   of  the 
developed    Mariolatry  to  the   older  figure  of 

1  E.g.  fragment  of  Naiimachius  in  Stobaeiis,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii. 
pp.  16-17. 


72     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

Isis.^      The    extravagance    of   an    enthusiasm 
that    was    rooted    in    old    pagan    sentiment 
occasionally     engendered     heresies.       Besides 
the    records    concerning    the    Montanist,    of 
which    the     significance     has     already    been 
noticed,    most    interesting    and   valuable    for 
our    purpose    is    the    sermon    of   Epiphanius 
against   the   heresy  of  the  Collideriani,^   wild 
women  who  devoted  themselves  to  the  wor- 
ship of  Mary,  and  whose  orgiastic  service  he 
describes  and  reprobates :    in  their  processions 
they  appear  to  have  drawn  the  Virgin  round  in 
a  car  strewn  with  raiment,  and  they  solemnised 
a  sacrament  with  bread  :  and  he  adds  that  they 
came    from    Thrace,    the    immemorial    home 
of  fanatic  women  and  of  the  goddess  "Artemis 
the  Queen,"   to  whom  also  offerings  of  corn 
were  made.^     The  procession  of  a  goddess  in 
a  car  was  probably  part  of  an  old   Thrako- 

1  Fide  specially  Trede_,  Das  Heidenthum  in  der  rbmischen 
Kirche  :  Renan,  Les  origines  du  christianisme,  vol.  vii.  512-51 S. 
The  resemblances  are  particularly  striking  between  the 
Catholic  and  the  Isiac  sacerdotalism. 

2  Haeres.,  79-  ^  Herod.,  4,  SS. 


Comparative   Study   of  Religions    73 

Phrygian  ceremonial,  and  we  hear  of  a  sacra- 
mental eating  of  bread  in  the  service  of 
Cybele. 

We  may  finally  note  that  the  enthusiastic 
literature  devoted  to  the  pre-Christian  Divine 
Mother  and  Maid  and  to  the  Virgin-Mother  of 
God  is  the  same  in  quality  and  tone.  The 
prayer  addressed  to  I  sis  in  the  story  of 
Apuleius  reminds  us  of  a  Christian  hymn  of 
praise ;  and  the  older  liturgical  or  literary 
expressions  would  naturally  colour  the  later/ 

Another  question  with  which  the  compara- 
tive study  of  Christianity  is  concerned  touches 
the  evolution  of  the  Trinitarian  idea.^     Here 

1  Cf.  the  prayer  to  Ninlil  or  Belit  (a  parallel  forai  to 
Ischtar)  of  Asarhaddon,  "may  the  Hps  of  Nin-lil,  the 
Mother  of  the  Great  God,  utter  daily  a  gracious  word 
before  Aschur  for  the  King  of  Assyria"  (Jastrow,  op.  cit. 
p.  525).  Mary  was  chiefly  worshipped  in  the  same  way  as 
an  intercessor. 

2  For  the  identity  of  Father  and  Son  in  the  later 
Mithraic  cult-dogma,  vide  Dieterich,  Fine  Mithras-Litiirgie, 
p.  68  :  for  the  Trinitarian  idea  in  Mithraism,  vide  Cumont, 
Die  Mysterien  von  Mithra  (deidsche  Avsgahe),  pp.  96,  145  : 
Mr  Cook  endeavours  to  trace  it  in  the  old  Pelasgian  cult 
of  Zeus,  Class.  Rev.   19OS,   1904:  vide  Hell.  Joum.,  I9OI, 


74     The   Evolution  of  Religion 

again  it  is  necessary  carefully  to  sift  the 
phenomena  of  the  contiguous  religions,  to 
consider  whether  they  present  such  a  con- 
ception at  all,  and  whether  in  any  of  them 
it  had  gained  sufficient  vividness  and  power 
to  be  likely  to  evoke  a  dogma  of  religious 
metaphysic.  Moreover,  to  understand  the 
complete  genesis  of  the  Christian  doctrine,  we 
must  trace  out  the  idea  of  divine  emanations 
in  the  Mediterranean  and  the  East ;  for  the 
religions  of  the  Iranian  and  even  the  Greek 
world  present  us  with  parallels  to  the  process 
whereby  the  Holy  Spirit  becomes  in  relation 
to  the  personal  God  a  distinct  though  closely 
attached  personality.  In  the  Zoroastrian 
ritual  the  Fravashi  or  Soul  of  Ahura  receives 
reverence,^  and  in  Greek  speculation  and  even 
cult  the  Oeov  Upovoua  or  Divine  Providence 
is  sometimes   regarded  as  an  individual   and 

p.  139,  for  Trinitarian  symbolism  in  Carthaginian  worship. 
(Note  a  certain  mystic  sanctity  attached  to  the  triad  in  later 
Greek  philosophy,  e.g.  in  Porphyry,  Serv.,  Verg.,  EcL,  5, 
66:  lo.  Lydiis,  de  Mens.,  2,  19.) 

^  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  vol.  xxxi.  pt.  iii.  p.  278. 


Comparative  Study   of  Religions    75 

personal  power ;  ^  nor  is  the  conception  of 
a  plurality  of  beings  within  the  limits  of 
the  same  personality  unfamiliar  to  primitive 
thought.  The  subject  is  one  of  the  most 
intricate  in  the  field  of  religious  study,  and 
the  more  hopeful  investigation  of  it  would 
demand  anthropological  study  in  its  widest 
sense,  combined  with  a  knowledge  of  the 
later  Greek  metaphysic  which  has  clearly 
left  its  impress  on  our  doctrine. 

I  will  close  these  illustrations  with  the  most 
obvious  example  of  the  contribution  of  anthro- 
pological study  to  our  knowledge  of  actual 
Christendom.  One  of  the  most  fruitful  off- 
shoots of  the  older  Hellenic  system  was 
hero-worship,  which  itself  may  have  arisen 
as  a  development  of  ancestor- cult.  At  first 
confined  to  the  mythic  figures  of  the  past, 
it  came  to  be  applied  to  founders  of  colonies, 
legislators,  and  even  to  athletes ;  in  its  final 
development  in  the  last  centuries  before  Christ 
it  was  chiefly  consecrated  to  kings  and  dynasts, 

1  Vide  Ciilts  of  the  Greek  States,  vol.  i.  p.  306. 


76     The   Evolution   of  Religion 

the  founders  of  religious  societies,  men  of 
science,  and  political  benefactors.  The  divine 
worship  of  the  mortal,  an  idea  abhorrent  to 
Judaism,  and  not  accepted  by  the  severer  Zoro- 
astrian,  was  part  of  the  state  system  of  earlier 
and  later  Egypt,  and  was  finally  imposed  on 
the  Greco- Roman  world.  The  soil  in  which 
it  had  most  rankly  flourished  was  Greek, 
and  Greece  and  Anatolia  were  crowded  with 
chapels  consecrated  to  recently  living  men  or 
to  faded  figures  who  were  supposed  to  have 
once  lived  on  earth,  some  of  them  perhaps 
actual  ancestors,  some  imaginary  personages 
of  the  epic  or  legendary  world,  some  merely 
functional  divinities  of  subordinate  depart- 
ments, like  the  hero  of  the  ploughshare  or  the 
tutelary  hero  of  the  potters.  This  growth 
of  polytheism  had  struck  its  roots  so  deeply 
that  Christianity,  in  spite  of  its  monotheistic 
ideal,  was  unable  to  eradicate  it.  The  ancient 
hero  may  sometimes  be  lurking  under  the 
later  disguise  of  the  saint:  the  mediaeval 
guild,   like    the   Attic   fraternity   of    potters, 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    77 

had    its    sacred    tutelary    patron ;     and    it    is 
curious    to    observe    that    in    the    matter    of 
canonisation  the  Pope  came  to  play  exactly 
the   same   part    as    the    Delphic    oracle    had 
played  in  the  public  consecration  of  the  hero- 
cult :    the    divine    authorisation   is   given   or 
withheld    by    the    vicar    or    agent    of    God. 
The  importance  of  this  inherited  tradition  in 
determining  our  religious  estimate  of  historical 
Christendom  is  of  the  highest :    for  whatever 
may  have  been  or  may  be  the  orthodox  dogma 
of  the  Church  concerning  the  status  of  the 
saint,    such   worship   inevitably   means   poly- 
theism from  the  point  of  view  of  the  popular 
faith  :  and  we  gather  that  in  many  outlying 
communities  of  Christendom,  as  of  the  ancient 
Greek    world,    the    lower    cult    overshadows 
the   higher.      And   this   is   one   of  the   most 
salient  and  sure  examples  that  we  can  quote 
of  the  direct  influence  of  the  older  religions 
upon   the    later.      This    special    influence    is 
mainly    Greek,    though    the    pagan     North, 
the   Celtic   and   Lithuanian,   and  perhaps  the 


78     The   Evolution  of  Religion 

Teutonic  peoples,  have  contributed  much  to 
the  tradition  of  saint-worship. 

The  illustrations  given  may  suffice  as  a 
sketch  of  the  various  applications  of  a  com- 
parative method  to  the  problems  that  the 
phenomena  of  Christianity  oifer  to  the  student. 
In  the  choice  of  illustration  I  may  seem  to 
have  ignored  the  strength  of  the  Judaic 
element  in  determining  the  evolution  ;  but  I 
have  considered  it  unnecessary  to  touch  on 
this,  as  it  has  long  been  the  familiar  theme  of 
scientific  theology.  I  have  also  ventured  to 
suggest  that  our  own  religious  history  should 
be  traced  back  to  the  period  of  our  ancestral 
paganism.  And  1  would  strongly  recommend 
to  the  student  of  comparative  religion  in 
England  a  devoted  attention  to  the  world  of 
the  Norse  Saga :  for  this  has  been  strangely 
and  fatally  neglected  by  our  English  system 
of  culture,  with  grievous  loss  to  our  poetic 
imagination,  and  to  our  knowledge  of  the 
early  law  and  the  religious  institutions  and 
temperament  of  our  ancestors.     Such  a  work 


Comparative   Study   of  Religions    79 

as  Golther's  Handbuch  der  germanischen 
Mythologie  shows  us  what  a  harvest  may  be 
reaped  in  that  field  for  the  science  of  rehgion. 
The  subject  in  its  own  right  claims  our  interest, 
and  certain  phenomena  in  the  old  Teutonic 
religion,  its  fatalistic  ideas,  its  eschatologic 
beliefs  concerning  a  "  day  of  judgment," 
demand  consideration  in  the  light  of  more 
advanced  creeds.  On  the  other  hand  it  may 
be  wrong  to  attribute  to  it  any  direct  influence 
on  the  inner  development  of  Northern  Christi- 
anity ;  for  there  may  be  reason  for  the  view  that, 
when  the  new  religion  conquered  the  Teutonic 
North,  it  found  there  in  some  sense  a  religious 
vacuum,  the  old  ritual  and  faith  having  lost  its 
vitality  and  hold ;  and  certainly  our  ancestral 
paganism  made  no  such  struggle  to  survive 
as  did  the  Greco- Roman.  Nevertheless  the 
history  of  its  institutions  may  be  necessary,  as 
has  been  suggested  already,  to  explain  the 
struggle  between  Church  and  State  in  Teu- 
tonic lands ;  and,  further,  it  is  only  the  pages 
of  the    Norse    Saga-book   that   can   yield    us 


8o     The   Evolution  of  Religion 

an  answer  to  the  question  whether  we  may 
not  have  inherited  from  remote  times  a  certain 
average  racial  law  of  religious  temperament 
resulting  in  a  characteristic  attitude  towards 
matters  of  religion  that  may  have  determined 
our  religious  history.  If  the  answer  were 
affirmative  and  definite,  the  fact  would  have 
a  practical  no  less  than  a  speculative  import- 
ance. At  least  we  shall  not  know  ourselves 
completely  in  this  or  in  other  matters  if  we 
continue  to  think  that  Greece  and  Rome  and 
Palestine  are  our  sole  intellectual  and  spiritual 
ancestors  ;  in  fact  we  may  say  that  no  account 
of  the  history  of  Christianity  in  any  European 
State  can  be  real  and  complete  unless  we  can 
get  back  to  the  pre-Christian  past  of  that 
community. 

Yet,  while  making  full  allowance  for  the 
influence  of  special  ancestral  traditions,  those 
who  work  on  the  lines  which  have  been 
indicated  in  the  illustrations  of  method  which 
I  have  selected,  will  acquire  the  ever-growing 
conviction    that    Hellas    has    dominated    the 


Comparative   Study   of  Religions     8i 

creed   as   she   has   dominated  the  intellectual 

history  of  Christendom  ;  that  the  new  faith,  in 

spite  of  its  fierce  or  contemptuous  intolerance 

of  the  past,  was  only  able  to  transform  but  not 

to  abolish  the  Mediterranean  tradition  :  that  in 

fact  Sir  Henry  Maine's  often  quoted  aphorism, 

while  by  no  means  wholly  true,  was  truer  in 

respect   of  religious   history  than    he  himself 

was  aware. 

I  have  been  speaking  hitherto  mainly  on  the 

relations  of  anthropology  to  the  comparative 

study  of  religion.      And  it  may  be  well  now 

to  point  out  that  anthropology,  as  I  have  tried 

to  define  and  distinguish  its  functions,  though 

an  essential  part,  is  only  a  part  of  the  whole. 

For  we  must  know  not  only  the  past  but  the 

present  conditions,  not  only  the  embryology 

but   the   perfected   growth.     And,   again,  we 

compare  religions  not  merely  to  test  theories 

of  origin,  ancestry,  and  indebtedness,  but  also 

to  form  the  proper  estimate  of  each  one,  and 

to   correct   the   one  -  sided  judgment   that   is 

always  quick  to  pronounce  this  phenomenon 

6 


82     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

or  feature  in  any  particular  system  as  unique. 
If  the  comparison  reveals  more  divergences 
than  parallels,  the  result  is  no  less  important. 
And  the  comparative  method  should  be  applied 
not  merely  to  ritual,  liturgy,  hieratic  institu- 
tions, legends,  and  dogmas,  but  also  to  the 
varying  phenomena  and  expressions  of  the 
religious  temperament  in  the  various  races. 
Only  the  study  of  the  latter  can  enable  us  to 
test  the  living  force  of  a  faith,  the  degree  with 
which  it  possesses  the  national  mind ;  and 
such  a  study  is  only  possible  when  a  nation 
has  produced  a  rich  religious  literature  or 
monuments  of  art  embodying  the  public  and 
private  worship  and  religious  sentiment.  We 
know  what  we  have  gained  by  the  discovery 
of  the  sacred  books  of  the  East,  by  the 
interpretation  of  the  Babylonian  inscriptions, 
and  from  their  revelation  to  us  in  the  Vedic, 
Iranian,  and  Mesopotamian  cult-centres  of  a 
fervour  as  deep  and  passionate  as  any  that  we 
find  in  Hebraic  or  Christian  writings.  On  the 
other  hand,  when  a  religion  has  passed  away, 


Comparative   Study   of  Religions    83 

as  is  the  case  with  that  of  pre-Hellenic  Rome, 
without  leaving  any  articulate  expression  of 
its  inner  life,  our  knowledge  of  it  can  be 
superficial  only,  confined  to  mere  ritual, 
fragments  of  liturgies,  and  the  externals  of 
cult. 

A  dispassionate  and  uncontroversial  study 
of  that  which  is  at  least  one  of  the  greatest 
forces  in  human  society  cannot  but  be  interest- 
ing, and  fruitful  also  for  other  branches  of 
inquiry,  such  as  the  history  of  early  law  and 
morals,  of  which  in  many  primitive  communi- 
ties the  religion  is  the  only  record.  It  may 
even  solve  certain  problems  concerning  the 
early  migrations  of  races,  as  I  have  been  con- 
vinced by  the  investigation  of  various  Greek 
cults.  In  England  the  trained  workers  in 
this  field  are  still  unfortunately  few,  perhaps 
because  a  certain  latent  prejudice,  born  of 
religious  partisanship,  is  not  yet  extinct,  and 
may  act  somewhat  as  a  deterrent.  I  have 
avoided  hitherto  alluding  to  any  of  the 
practical     and     controversial     considerations 


84     The  Evolution   of  Religion 

which  the  methodical  pursuit  and  propaga- 
tion of  this  science  may  excite,  though  I  am 
well  aware  that  its  practical  effects  may  be  of 
high  importance  ;  but  they  are  not  immediately 
our  concern  at  present.  There  is,  however, 
one  such  consideration  that  it  is  pertinent  to 
touch  on  before  concluding  the  survey  of  the 
methods  and  functions  of  this  branch  of 
historical  inquiry,  which  deals  much  with 
origins  and  with  the  evolution  of  higher 
forms  of  religion  from  the  lower.  Dis- 
coveries of  origins  may  appear  to  affect  the 
validity  of  a  creed  or  certain  articles  of  creed. 
That  this  is  actually  the  case  in  regard  to  the 
great  problem  with  which  the  illustrations  I 
have  put  before  you  are  mainly  concerned, 
namely,  the  genesis  of  Christianity,  has  been 
recently  frankly  admitted  by  a  leading  digni- 
tary of  the  Roman  Church :  who,  moved  by 
a  rumour  of  anthropological  research,  has 
promptly  turned  it  to  the  profit  of  his  cause 
by  maintaining  that  the  Roman  ritual  and 
communion    gains   in   force   and    validity   by 


Comparative   Study   of  Religions    85 

the  discovery  that  it  has  inherited  and  ab- 
sorbed the  religious  thought  and  practice  of 
ancient  Greece  and  Rome.  On  the  other 
hand,  others  may  find  the  exposition  of  the 
so-called  pagan  elements  in  the  essence  of 
Christianity  repugnant  to  their  sentiment ; 
and  hence  are  inclined  to  accept  the  dictum 
"that  origin  does  not  affect  validity."  I 
imagine  the  facts  of  religious  psychology  make 
somewhat  against  this  aphorism.  But  it  only 
concerns  the  science  of  comparative  religion, 
because  in  the  history  of  creeds  validity  has 
been  very  often  found  to  maintain  itself  mainly 
by  an  appeal  to  origin ;  and  as  our  science,  to 
reiterate,  is  much  concerned  with  origins,  it 
is  indirectly  concerned  with  those  claims  of 
validity  that  support  themselves  by  such  an 
appeal. 

Another  cause  of  the  paucity  of  workers  in 
this  field  is  the  complexity  and  difficulty  of 
the  subject,  which  can  be  handled  success- 
fully only  by  the  advanced  and  mature  student. 
The     pre-requisites    of    competence    are    an 


86     The   Evolution  of  Religion 

exact  philological  as  well  as  an  archaeological 
training,  with  a  view  to  the  proper  appreciation 
both  of  texts  and  monuments ;  secondly,  a 
general  acquaintance  with  the  problems  and 
history  of  philosophy,  and  especially  of  ethics, 
and  with  the  history  of  early  social  institutions 
and  law  ;  thirdly,  a  comprehensive  study  of 
anthropology.  To  this  must  be  added  a 
sympathetic  and  minute  knowledge  of  at  least 
two  of  the  great  world -religions,  whereby 
alone  a  critical  insight  into  the  essential 
and  significant  phenomena  of  the  religious 
experiences  of  our  race  can  be  obtained. 
The  comparative  science  of  religion  has 
now  become  possible,  thanks  partly  to  the 
labours  of  philological  specialists  in  the 
ancient  languages  of  Europe  and  Asia,  and 
partly  to  the  organisation  of  anthropological 
travel. 

Let  me  conclude  with  remarking  that 
subdivision  of  labour  is  imperative  in  this 
field :  and  it  is  especially  in  Oxford  that  the 
opportunities    for    the    requisite    preliminary 


Comparative  Study  of  Religions    87 

training  are  plentiful.  It  would  be  a  gain  for 
more  than  science  if  we  could  see  a  group  of 
mature  students  organised  here  exploring  the 
various  departments  of  this  complex  subject 
in  co-operation  and  with  mutual  assistance. 


LECTURE  III. 

THE  RITUAL  OF  PUllIl  ICATIOX  AND  THE  CON- 
CEPTION OF  PURITY  :  THEIR  INFLUENCE  ON 
RELIGION,    MORALITY,  AND  SOCIAL  CUSTOM 

Among  all  the  varied  religious  acts  of  man, 
there  is  probably  none  that  has  been  so  widely 
prevalent  throughout  the  different  races  of 
mankind  as  the  ritual  of  purification,  nor  does 
any  idea  seem  to  have  possessed  so  strong  a 
legislative  power  in  the  various  departments 
of  our  life  as  the  concept  of  purity.  We  can 
trace  it  back  to  instincts  that  we  appear  to 
share  with  the  higher  animals,  and  we  can 
track  it  upwards  through  the  complex  rites 
of  the  higher  religions.  The  record  presents 
us  with  a  vast  mass  of  phenomena  which,  as 
far  as  I  am  able  to  discover,  have  not  yet  been 
reduced  to   system   or   unified   by    any   con- 

88 


The   Ritual  of  Purification     89 

structive  theory  of  evolution.  In  this  lecture 
I  venture  to  attempt  the  systematisation  of 
the  subject,  first  giving  a  brief  summary 
of  the  main  facts  which  are  well  known  to 
the  students  of  primitive  anthropology  and 
comparative  religion  and  which  confront  us 
in  nearly  all  the  societies  that  have  been 
explored. 

In  the  stage  of  our  conscious  life  which  we 
may  call,  relatively  to  man's  growth,  primeval, 
certain  bodily  acts  and  states  and  certain 
material  substances  are  regarded  as  unclean 
and  impure,  likely  to  imprint  a  stain  upon  the 
person.  It  is  impossible  here  to  attempt  to 
enumerate  all  the  examples,  and  it  is  enough 
to  mention  a  few  that  are  salient  and  typical. 
The  generative  processes  of  life,  the  states  and 
activities  of  the  male  and  especially  the  female 
organism  connected  with  them,  the  bodily 
changes  incident  on  puberty,  are  among  the 
most  familiar  phenomena  with  which  the  idea 
of  impurity  in  some  peculiar  sense  has  been 
universally    associated.     A     chief    centre    or 


go     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

*'  nidus  "  of  impurity  is  child-birth  ;  but  still 
more  dangerously  impure  is  its  counterpart, 
death  and  all  the  phenomena  of  death.  In 
respect  of  child-birth  the  idea  is  fading  away 
from  our  civilised  consciousness ;  but  it  has 
left  a  deep  deposit  in  our  conscious  or  sub- 
conscious self  in  regard  to  death.  The 
material  substance  that  has  been  most 
generally  felt  to  be  impure  is  blood ;  the 
curious  feeling  that  the  mere  mention  of  the 
word  often  excites  in  certain  modern  people  is 
a  faint  reflex  of  the  savage  mental  state  in 
respect  to  the  thing  ;  and  the  influence  of  this 
disposition  upon  advanced  society  raises  the 
most  interesting  question  in  which  com- 
parative law,  ethics,  and  religion  are  jointly 
concerned,  and  which  will  be  considered  later. 
To  continue  our  enumeration  we  may  not 
find  that  the  objects  of  the  inanimate  world  out- 
side ourselves  are  usually  regarded  by  primi- 
tive thought  as  in  themselves  impure,  but  all 
or  most  of  them  are  capable  of  catching  the 
infection  from  ourselves,  from  death  or  child- 


The   Ritual  of  Purification     91 

birth  for  instance :  hence  it  may  be  necessary 
to  break  or  destroy  or  purify  the  utensils  and 
furniture  of  the  house  where  a  death  or  a  birth 
has  occurred.  At  a  somewhat  more  advanced 
stage,  certain  food- stuffs  come  to  rank  as 
impure,  and  a  comphcated  code  of  *'  tapu  "  is 
estabUshed  for  specially  sanctified  persons. 
Then  we  are  confronted,  but  not  apparently 
in  the  most  primitive  period,  with  the  distinc- 
tion between  pure  and  impure  animals,  which 
also  dictates  certain  rules  and  practices  of 
diet. 

On  the  other  hand  certain  natural  things 
may  come  to  be  regarded  as  specially 
"pure,"  whether  on  the  ground  of  a  certain 
intrinsic  quality,  because  for  instance  they 
are  bright  and  lustrous,  or  from  the  fact  that 
they  were  habitually  used  for  cathartic  or 
cleansing  processes,  as  fire,  water,  odorous 
wood  or  spices,  or  substances  which  emitted 
a  pungent  odour  such  as  sulphur.  Such 
objects  "  are  used  in  ritual,"  says  Jamblichus,^ 

1  De  Mysteriis,  5,  23. 


g2     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

"  because  they  are  specially  full  of  the  divine 
nature."  But  the  psychic  phenomena  and  the 
corresponding  acts  with  which  we  are  dealing 
may  be  well  suspected  of  descending  from  an 
age  at  which  no  definite  concept  of  a  divine 
nature  had  as  yet  arisen,  an  age  not  yet 
perhaps  even  animistic,  for  in  their  crudest 
form  they  do  not  seem  necessarily  to  imply 
any  articulate  system  of  belief  in  a  world  of 
ghosts  and  spirits.  And  this  reflection  brings 
us  to  the  first  question  of  importance,  what 
this  primitive  concept  of  purity  and  impurity 
really  is,  and  what  were  the  sensations  from 
which  it  was  evolved.  Nothing  is  more 
difficult  to  describe  than  simple  sensations, 
but  it  is  possible  to  distinguish  one  from 
another.  And  we  must  distinguish  between 
the  modern  feeling  about  cleanliness  and  the 
primitive  feelings  which  we  are  considering. 
That  "  cleanliness  is  next  to  godliness  "  is  an 
aphorism  suggested  no  doubt  by  sensations 
fundamentally  akin  to  these ;  but  many  a  savage 
who    is    most    particular    about    "  impurity " 


The   Ritual  of  Purification     93 

cares  little  or  nothing  for  what  we  call 
"  cleanliness."  We  consider  that  the  cleansing 
acts  we  ourselves  perform  are  purely  hygienic 
or  pleasure-giving,  partly  connected  with  the 
instinct  of  self-preservation,  and  some  of  them 
we  find  performed  by  other  animals  than  man. 
But  the  savage  ritual  of  purification  does 
not  by  any  means  tend  necessarily  to  self- 
preservation,  but  at  times  may  lead  to  self- 
destruction,  and  no  hygienic  or  utilitarian  or 
secular  considerations  will  carry  us  far  in  ex- 
plaining the  cathartic  code  of  Leviticus  or  the 
Zend-Avesta,  or  Buddhism,  or  the  impurity  of 
tabooed  animals.  These  codes,  while  some 
of  their  prescriptions  may  be  such  as  modern 
utilitarian  ideas  might  dictate,  are  obviously 
instinct  with  religious  or  superstitious  beliefs, 
and  to  explain  the  distinction  between  the 
pure  and  the  impure  animals  would  need  a 
long  excursus  into  primitive  religion  ;  the 
distinction  is  certainly  not  one  between 
wholesome  and  unwholesome,  or  pleasant  and 
unpleasant,  meat. 


94     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

We  may  probably  discover  the  nature  of 
the  instinct  underlying  much  of  the  cathartic 
custom-law  by  taking  as  our  typical  example 
the  savage  feeling  about  blood.  Evidence 
from  almost  every  society  in  the  world  yields 
proof  that  the  stain  of  blood  is  the  primary 
impurity  that  needs  a  purifying  ritual :  hence 
arose  a  body  of  rules  that  were  a  burden  upon 
domestic  life,  hence  the  elaborate  purifications 
of  warriors  after  battle  or  of  the  individual 
homicide.  Such  rules  in  no  way  remind  us 
of  the  natural  desire  to  take  a  bath  at  the  end 
of  a  warm  field-day :  the  savage  purifications 
after  battle  may  last  for  weeks  ;  it  is  recorded 
that  a  North  American  Indian  tribe  was  ex- 
tirpated because  it  needed  a  month  to  wipe 
off  the  stain  of  a  single  conflict,  while  their 
enemies  needed  only  a  week  for  that  purpose 
and  therefore  had  the  advantage  of  three 
weeks'  start  in  preparing  for  the  next  attack. 
The  sense  -  instinct  that  suggests  all  this  is 
probably  some  primeval  terror  or  aversion 
evoked  by  certain  objects,  as  we  see  animals 


The  Ritual  of  Purification     95 

shrink  with  disgust  at  the  sight  or  smell  of 
blood.  The  nerves  of  savage  man  are  strangely- 
excited  by  certain  stimuli  of  touch,  smell, 
taste,  sight:  the  specially  exciting  object  is 
something  that  we  should  call  "  mysterious," 
"  weird,"  or,  still  more  expressively,  "  uncanny." 
To  the  primitive  mind  nothing  was  more 
uncanny  than  blood,  and  there  are  people 
still  who  faint  at  the  sight  of  it :  for  "  the 
blood  is  the  life,"  life  and  death  are  the 
great  primeval  mysteries,  and  all  the  physical 
substances  that  are  associated  with  the  inner 
principle  of  either  partake  of  this  mysterious- 
ness.  For  the  savage,  what  is  mysterious  is 
also  dangerous  and  not  to  be  lightly  handled 
or  approached.  Now,  the  man  who  incurs 
such  stain  not  merely  is  exposed  to  some  un- 
accountable danger  himself,  but  he  is  able  to 
infect  others  by  contagion  ;  he  spreads  a  sort 
of  miasma,  he  is  the  conducting  vehicle  of  a 
dangerous  spiritual  electricity  —  mere  meta- 
phors, which,  however,  may  enable  us  to  catch 
something  of  the  primitive  thought.     Such  a 


96     The  Evolution   of  Religion 

man  therefore  must  avoid  communion  with  his 
fellows  for  a  time,  must  be  "  tabooed  " ;  and 
will  naturally  endeavour  to  remove  the  "  tapu  " 
or  dangerous  "  miasma  "  by  some  magic  rites  of 
cleansing  or  release.  The  kinsmen  of  the  re- 
cently dead  in  all  primitive  societies  are  impure, 
because  they  have  come  into  contact  with  death, 
the  chief  source  of  all  impurity  ;  therefore  they 
must  be  isolated,  and,  until  they  are  purified, 
must  wear  some  badge  or  external  mark — 
which  we  call  "  mourning " — to  warn  others 
against  approaching  them.  The  "  tapu  "  still 
remains  in  civilised  communities  ;  we  abstain 
from  intruding  on  the  bereaved  family,  though 
we  give  a  different  motive  for  our  keeping 
aloof  It  so  often  happens  that  in  such 
matters  we  act  as  the  savage  acts ;  but  we 
must  abandon  for  a  time  our  normal  way  of 
looking  at  things  in  order  to  imagine  his. 
To  us  a  corpse  may  be  an  object  of  aversion, 
and  it  is  in  some  degree  contagious  ;  but  our 
view  of  it,  when  we  are  cool,  is  secular  and 
scientific:   while   the  primitive  aspect  of  it  is 


The   Ritual  of  Purification     97 

supranormal  and  mystic,  and  the  contagion  is 
something   spiritual  and   incalculably  danger- 
ous.    In  the  Zend-Avesta  we  find  an  inter- 
esting   special   application   of  this   idea :    the 
defiling   power   of   the    dead    varies    directly 
according    to    the    sanctity   or   rank    of    the 
deceased ;  thus  it  is  greatest  in  the  corpse  of 
the  priest,  somewhat  less  in  that  of  a  warrior, 
and    least    in     that    of    the    husbandman :  ^ 
corruptio   opthni   pessima:    the    most    sacred 
person    can    defile    the   most,    because   he   is 
charged  with  the  most  mysterious  and  there- 
fore   dangerous    potency.      The    Latin   term 
"sacer"   has   the  double  meaning  of  "holy" 
and  "  accursed  " :  from  the  same  Greek  root, 
ay,   spring  a  word   connoting  holiness  and  a 
word  meaning  "  pollution."     Primeval  thought 
or  feeling  holds  together  in  a  vague  unity  ideas 
that   afterwards   differentiate  themselves   and 
even   become   antithetical.     The  same  power 
of    radiating    dangerous    influence,    supposed 

1  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  vol.  iv.,  Zend-Avesta,  pt.  i. 
pp.  58-59. 


9  8     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

to  attach  to  the  holy  man,  the  polluted  man 
and  the  polluting  thing,  brought  them 
originally  under  the  same  dim  conception. 

It  would  not  repay  us  here  to  endeavour  to 
trace  out  and  explain  all  the  minutiae  of  this 
superstition  :  the  long  lists  of  pure  and  impure 
things  that  one  might  compile  do  not  disclose 
any  single  regulative  idea,  and  nothing  is  more 
baffling  than  the  eccentricities  of  prejudice  and 
terror.      But  this  superstition  often  proceeds 
with  a  logic  of  its  own  :  as  a  corpse  is  most  un- 
clean, and  all  who  touch  it  are  impure,  there- 
fore dogs   and  wolves  and  carrion   birds   are 
impure  and  must  not  be  eaten  :  and  anything 
that  however  distantly  reminds  us  of  danger 
and    death,    such    as    quarrelsome    acts    and 
words,    may   come    to    be    rigidly   prohibited 
during  a  ritual  of  purification.     As  blood  is 
primevally   impure,   therefore    any   substance 
analogous  to  it  or  of  the  same  colour  might 
be  regarded  as  ill-omened,  such  as   beans  or 
pomegranates.     The  same  kind  of  sensational 
aversion  will  cause  malodorous  substances  to 


The  Ritual  of  Purification     99 

be  regarded  usually  as  unclean  ;  therefore  food 
of  an  evil  savour,  or  such  as  leaves  unpleasant 
traces  in  the  person,  will  often  be  tabooed  by 
certain  strict  sects.  ^  There  is  also  a  certain 
common-sense  discoverable  in  the  distinction 
between  substances  on  the  ground  of  their 
greater  or  less  susceptibility  to  spiritual  con- 
tagion :  earthen  pots,  for  instance,  have  been 
often  considered  more  easily  infected  than 
metal,  and  need  longer  purification,  liquid 
substances  more  dangerous  conductors  than 
dry.  "  Should  the  dry  mingle  with  the  dry," 
says  Ahura  Mazda  in  a  conversation  with 
Zarathustra,  "  how  soon  all  this  material 
earth  of  mine  would  be  only  one  Peshotanu," 
which  is  as  much  as  to  say  that  the  earth 
would  become  a  charnel-house  of  impurity. 
And  Darmesteter  ^  remarks,  in  commenting  on 
this  verse,  "  Nowadays  in  Persia,  the  Jews  are 

1  E.g.  onions^  pease-soup^  cheese  :  I-Tsing,  Records  of 
the  Buddhist  Religion,  p.  138,  "onions  have  a  foul  smell  and 
are  impure  "  :  c/!  list  of  impure  substances  in  ritual  inscrip- 
tion of  Rhodes,  C.I.G.  Ins.  Mar.  JEg.  i.  No.  789- 

2  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Zend-Avesta,  pt.  i.  p.  105. 


lOO    The  Evolution  of   Religion 

not  allowed  to  go  out  of  their  house  on  a 
rainy  day,  lest  the  religious  impurity  conducted 
through  the  rain  should  pass  from  the  Jew  to 
the  Mussalman."  We  have  here  a  view  of 
contagion  that  seems  to  agree  with  that  of 
modern  science,  only  the  latter  is  physical, 
the  former  mystic  or  spiritual.  Again,  the 
choice  of  substances  used  for  purification  was 
not  dictated  by  the  modern  idea  of  a  cleansing 
quality,  but  by  a  certain  superstitious  logic 
which  we  can  sometimes  detect.  If  liquid 
substances  have  a  natural  affinity  for  contagion, 
then  if  we  take  them  while  they  are  uninfected 
and  use  them  for  lustration,  they  will  easily 
absorb  the  impurities  of  our  own  persons  and 
rid  us  of  them ;  therefore  the  modern  savage 
or  the  ancient  Greek  might  think  it  desirable 
to  daub  himself  with  clay  or  mud  to  wash 
away  his  taint :  and  from  this  example  we  see 
how  distinct  these  primeval  lustral  processes 
are  from  the  modern  hygienic  washing,  to 
which  nevertheless  they  often  bear  a  close 
resemblance.       By    a     similar    reasoning    we 


The  Ritual  of  Purification     loi 

may  explain  an  inconsistency  that  occasion- 
ally appears  in  the  cathartic  ritual ;  a  sub- 
stance impure  as  food  might  be  used  for 
purposes  of  lustration :  for  instance,  we  find 
garlic  used  as  a  cathartic  in  the  worship  of 
the  Phrygian  god  Men  at  Athens.^  Fire,  the 
universal  purifier,  may  have  been  accredited 
with  this  power  by  right  of  its  own  nature, 
but  partly  in  all  probability  because  it  was  be- 
lieved to  dry  up  miasma  and  damp  infection.^ 

In  the  Zend-Avesta  code,  after  drying  for  a 
whole  year  under  the  light  of  the  sun,  the 
corpse  at  last  becomes  pure  ;  for  by  the  same 
natural  instinct  that  caused  the  aversion  to 
blood,  the  sun's  light  comes  to  be  regarded  as 
the  purest  thing  in  the  world :  meat  cooked  by 
its  warmth  is  more  sanctified  than  fire-cooked 
meat ;  and  certain  acts  and  states  of  man 
have  a  greater  defilement  in  the  sun's  face. 

So  far   I  have  been  trying  to  present  the 

1  C.I.A.,  3,  73. 

2  The  purifying  power  that  ashes  possess  in  certain 
ritual  may  be  derivative  from  fire. 


I02     The   Evolution  of  Religion 

phenomena  without  reference  to  any  definite 
rehgious  behef,  to  express  them  as  far  as 
possible  in  terms  of  simple  sensation ;  for,  as 
was  said  at  the  beginning  of  the  discussion,  it 
is  possible  that  they  have  descended  from  a 
pre-religious  age.  We  may  now  ask  how  the 
baneful  influence  of  the  impure  thing  in  this 
primeval  stage  of  thought  was  supposed  to 
work,  unassisted  by  any  spiritual  agency  such 
as  spirit  or  god.  We  may  suppose  that  it 
produced  its  results  indirectly  by  depressing 
the  vital  energies  of  the  man  who  was  the 
victim  of  the  superstition :  the  savage  might 
beheve  that  it  worked  directly,  by  some 
mysterious  law  of  luck,  paralysing  a  man's 
force  and  spoiling  his  hunting  and  fighting. 
This  idea  of  a  spontaneous  mesmeric  power 
of  evil  that  certain  things  possess  seems  to 
glimmer  through  the  verse  in  the  Zend- 
Avesta.  **Here  am  I,"  says  an  unlucky 
man  to  those  whom  he  meets,  **  one  who  has 
touched  the  corpse  of  a  man  and  who  is 
powerless     in     mind,    powerless     in    tongue, 


The  Ritual  of  Purification     103 

powerless  in  hand ;  do  make  me  clean."  ^ 
Is  it  an  illusion  to  believe  that  we  have 
here  penetrated  to  the  psychological  root  of 
the  whole  matter  ?  And  here  there  is  no 
direct  reference  to  spirit  or  god. 

But  at  an  early  period  such  reference  was 
made,  and  it  was  then  that  this  cathartic  ritual 
really  started  on  a  momentous  career.  AVhen 
the  doctrine  of  animism  became  firmly  estab- 
lished, it  attracted  the  ritual  and  the  ideas 
associated  with  it,  and  the  animistic  imprint 
upon  them  can  still  be  traced  even  in  the 
higher  religions.  A  dangerous  spirit  was  sup- 
posed to  abide  in  the  impure  thing  and  to  be 
evoked  by  the  unclean  act ;  the  potency  which 
in  the  primeval  stage  of  feeling  had  been  per- 
haps regarded  merely  as  something  mysteriously 
baneful  and  "  uncanny,"  now  becomes  personal 
and  intelligible  and  can  be  dealt  with  and 
exorcised  by  certain  efficacious  rules.  The 
stain  of  blood  on  the  homicide  attracts  the 
ghost  of  the  slain  to  pursue  him,  certain  foods 

1   Op,  cit,  pt.  i.  p.  120. 


I04    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

are  impure  because  evil  spirits  attach  to  them, 
disease  is  specially  their  work,  and  a  veritable 
pandemonium     gathers     around    the    corpse, 
the  woman  in  child-birth,  and   the  new-born 
child.      Illustrations   showing   how    this    de- 
moniac faith  has  pervaded  the  thought  of  the 
world  are   broadcast  in  the  records  of  primi- 
tive man  as  well  as  in  the  higher  literature  of 
our  race,  the  Vedic  and  Iranian  sacred  books, 
the  New  Testament,  the  Pythagorean,  Platonic, 
and  Neoplatonic  texts.     In  the   view   of  the 
Zend-Avesta,   which  regards  the    whole  uni- 
verse  as  an   overcharged  battery  of  spiritual 
electricity,  a  single  careless  act  of  accidental 
uncleanliness  is  a  cosmic  catastrophe  :  legions 
of  "  drugs  "  or  devils  start  up  at  once  into  exist- 
ence to  destroy   the  world  of  righteousness.^ 
Plato,  though  on  the  whole  he  preserves  his 
sanity  in  the  matter,  is  under  the  dominion 
of    similar   ideas,    and    Neoplatonism    reverts 
back  to  the  savage  view,  believing  that  the 
chief  aim  of  dyz^etat,  or  purifications,  was  to 

1  E.g.  op.  cit.,  pp.  201,  204. 


The  Ritual  of  Purification     105 

drive    the   evil    spirits    out    of   certain    kinds 
of  food.^ 

The  deep  animistic  colouring  that  the  con- 
ception we  are  analysing  came  at  a  very 
early  time  to  acquire  may  be  responsible  for  a 
very  important  event  in  the  history  of  religion  : 
the  evolution,  namely,  of  the  dualistic  principle, 
the  idea  of  the  antagonism  between  good  and 
evil  spirits,  the  germ  of  which  we  can  already 
detect  in  the  animistic  stage  which  may  have 
preceded  the  faith  in  high  personal  gods.  If 
the  impure  things  and  acts  are  impregnated 
with  evil  spirits,  it  is  natural  to  suppose 
that  the  pure  are  the  abode  of  the  good,  and 
these  are  contrary  the  one  to  the  other.  It 
may  have  required  a  very  long  period  for  a 
clear  belief  in  the  good  spirit  to  crystallise  ;  for 
to  the  very  primitive  mind  all  spirits  are 
mysteriously  dangerous,  even  the  ghosts  of 
one's  dearest  kinsmen.  Still,  the  ancestral 
spirits  make  on  the  whole  for  righteousness, 
and  can  be  given  the  position  of  guardians  of 

1  E.g.  Porphyry  in  Euseb.,  Prcep.  Evang.,  4,  22. 


io6    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

the  purification  code.  Thus  the  New  Cale- 
donians avert  the  wrath  of  the  ghosts  of  their 
ancestors  by  washing,  fasting,  and  chastity :  ^ 
the  ancient  Greek  might  pray  or  sacrifice  to 
a  vague  animistic  company  of  Oeol  'Attot/oo- 
TraioL  or  MetXt^t'Ot,  regarded  perhaps  as  ghosts 
of  the  lower  world,  to  avert  the  impure  omen 
or  to  wash  off  the  taint  of  blood. 

Finally,  the  conception  of  purity  comes  under 
the  dominion  of  the  higher  faith  in  a  personal 
god.  In  Greece,  Apollo  and  Zeus  attach  to 
themselves  the  ritual  and  the  associated  ideas  ; 
in  Persia  the  whole  complex  code  of  purity 
is  established  by  Ahura  Mazda  ;  in  Israel  by 
Jahve,  who  enforces  the  minutest  details  of  the 
law  with  insistence  on  the  purity  of  God.^ 
In  Babylonian  as  in  Vedic  religion,  the  fire- 
god  is  pre-eminently  the  purifier,  a  name 
which  is  attached  particularly  to  Agni,  and  we 
find   in   the   Babylonian    liturgical    texts    the 


1  SteinmetZj  Die  Eiitwickelung  der  Strafe^  vol.  ii.  p.  S55. 

2  Cf.  "  Ye  shall  be  holy,  for  I  am  holy,"  Lev.   xi.  44  ; 
Deuteron.  xxiii.  12. 


The   Ritual  of  Purification     107 

prayer,^  "  May  the  torch  of  the  shining  fire- 
god  cleanse  me."  Nor  does  Buddhism  appear 
to  differ  from  Leviticus  or  the  Zend-Avesta  in 
respect  of  the  comphcations  of  its  cathartic 
rules  and  the  importance  it  attached  to  them. 
The  Buddhist  missionary,  I-Tsing,  exhorts  the 
faithful  to  observe  the  elaborate  prescriptions 
of  the  Buddha,  "  because,"  as  he  naively  puts  it, 
*'  gods  and  spirits  get  disgusted  with  our  ways 
of  wearing  garments  and  eating  food."  With 
this  abundance  of  testimony  before  us,  we  are 
all  the  more  surprised  to  find  that  very  little 
is  forthcoming  from  the  records  of  our  own 
ancestral  paganism.  We  can  scarcely  believe 
that  our  Teutonic  ancestors  were  destitute  of 
the  idea  of  lustration,  and  that  their  cleanliness 
and  chastity,  attested  by  the  Roman  writers 
and  still  more  clearly  by  their  own  sagas,  were 
virtues  of  purely  secular  origin.  And  in  fact 
we  have  certain  records  of  Teutonic  ritual  that 
seem  to  point  to  cathartic  ideas :  "  After  the 
goddess    Nerthus    had    gone    on    her    annual 

1  JastroWj  op.  cii.,  p.  500. 


io8     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

procession  round  the  villages,"  as  Tacitus  in- 
forms us,^  "  her  chariot  and  garments  and  her 
own  person  were  solemnly  washed  in  the 
waters  of  a  sacred  lake,  as  if  the  holy  divinity 
had  been  polluted  by  her  intercourse  with  men." 
It  is  also  possible  that  the  custom  still  pre- 
valent in  the  Teutonic  populations  of  Europe, 
of  leaping  over  the  bonfire  on  midsummer's 
eve,  is  the  relic  of  a  ceremony  of  fire-lustration 
performed  before  the  beginning  of  harvest.^ 
Doubtless  also  they  had  the  same  rules  as 
those  prevailing  in  nearly  all  communities, 
whether  civilised  or  uncivilised,  concerning  the 
purity  of  temples ;  for  we  have  record  of  an 
Icelandic  law  that  the  "  Holy  Place  of  Peace  " 
was  not  to  be  defiled  by  blood  or  any  human 
uncleanness.^  Still,  though  other  evidence 
pointing  in  the  same  direction  might  be 
gathered,  it  seems  clear  that  the  burden  of 
the  cathartic  ritual  did  not  weigh  heavily  on 
the  consciences  of  our  fathers  when  the  dawn 

1   Germania,  c.  40.  -  Golther,  op.  cit.  p.  570. 

3  Golther,  op.  cit.  p.  607. 


The   Ritual  of  Purification     109 

of  their  history  begins.  I  am  not  aware  of 
any  indication,  for  instance,  that  they  regarded 
formal  lustration  after  bloodshed  to  be  obliga- 
tory or  desirable.  And  their  comparative 
freedom  in  regard  to  such  ceremonies  is  a  fact 
of  great  importance  with  which  we  must 
reckon  in  our  estimate  of  our  later  spiritual 
history.  We  may  at  the  same  time  believe, 
on  general  grounds,  that  they  also  had  at  some 
remoter  epoch  passed  through  a  period  of 
bondage  to  the  same  ideas  and  the  same 
formalities  that  we  find  so  generally  prevalent 
in  other  kindred  and  alien  races. 

The  more  interesting  side  of  the  inquiry 
now  presents  itself,  the  question  about  the 
influence  that  these  cathartic  ideas  may  have 
exercised  upon  religion,  morality,  and  law. 
We  may  endeavour,  for  the  sake  of  systematis- 
ation,  to  maintain  this  tripartite  classification, 
although  we  find  it  becoming  more  and  more 
illusory  the  further  our  investigation  travels 
back  to  the  earher  social  life  of  man. 

But  before  attempting  to  survey  the  special 


no    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

facts  that  present  themselves  within  these 
three  departments,  it  is  well  to  note  one 
phenomenon  that  concerns  religion  and 
morality  in  equal  measure,  and  is  of  perhaps 
greater  importance  than  all  others  in  the 
varied  process  of  the  evolution  of  the 
cathartic  idea.  We  have  mainly  been 
dealing  so  far  with  facts  that  seem  to  belong 
to  the  most  primitive  deposit  of  human 
consciousness  and  not  properly  to  be  ethical 
in  the  modern  sense  at  all :  the  stain  of  blood, 
even  incurred  by  ruthless  murder,  the  stain 
of  childbirth  and  the  sexual  processes,  the 
contagion  of  the  corpse,  are  all  for  the  same 
reason  "  suspect "  to  primitive  man  because 
they  involve  vague  and  mysterious  danger, 
not  because  they  are  associated  with  the 
concept  of  sin.  Nor  does  this  latter  concept 
necessarily  enter  in,  even  when  a  more  articu- 
late animism  has  taken  possession  of  the 
superstition,  and  the  impurity  means  the 
presence  of  an  evil  spirit :  the  leper,  the  man 
who   has   come   into   contact   with  the  dead, 


The  Ritual  of  Purification     1 1 1 

the  blood-stained  murderer,  are  all  regarded 
as  suffering  from  the  same  trouble,  though 
in  greater  or  lesser  degree.  The  idea  of 
purity  and  impurity,  in  fact,  whether  cor- 
poreal and  external  or  whether  spiritual  in 
the  sense  of  its  association  with  the  world 
of  spirits,  is  still  non-ethical,  and  we  must 
not  apply  our  moral  standards  to  it  until 
a  later  stage.  It  arrives  at  this  stage  and 
at  its  higher  significance  for  morality  when 
it  has  evolved  the  conception  of  a  pure 
heart,  a  pure  soul.  And  that  this  latter, 
which  is  one  of  the  most  pregnant  of  the 
concepts  of  developed  ethics,  was  actually 
evolved  from  the  primitive  ritualistic  and 
demoniac  superstition  can,  I  believe,  be 
proved  by  the  evidence,  and  accords  with  a 
well-known  psychologic  law  of  early  thought. 
We  deceive  ourselves  if  we  are  content 
to  say  that  terms  such  as  "pure  heart," 
"  pure  soul "  are  mere  metaphors.  The  theory 
of  metaphors  is  a  refuge  for  those  who  do 
not  understand,  or  who  do  not  wish  to  under- 


112     The  Evolution   of  Religion 

stand,  religious  history,  and  much  might  be 
said  of  the  far-reaching  effects  of  this  fallacy 
of  interpretation.  The  soul  was  not  called 
*'\j)vxn''  or  "animus"  or  "spiritus"  by  mere 
metaphor:  nor  was  the  phrase  "white  liver" 
a  metaphor  for  the  people  who  first  applied 
it  to  the  coward.  Primitive  man  may  be 
the  victim  of  false  analogy  and  association 
of  ideas,  but  these  mental  processes  mean 
for  him  something  other  than  metaphor 
means  for  us.  It  is  not  by  way  of  metaphor 
that  the  modern  Basuto  speaks  of  his  heart 
"being  black  and  dirty,"  that  is,  "impure" 
or  "sad,"  the  same  word  being  used  for 
corporeal  impurity,  sadness,  and  sin.^  The 
colour  of  the  impure  act  or  bodily  state  is, 
so  to  speak,  transferred  inwards :  if  the  act 
involves    a    physical    stain,    then,    as    things, 

1  Casalis,  Les  Bassoidos,  p.  269  •*  among  the  Zulus^  sin 
and  dirt  are  spoken  of  as  the  same, — '•  You  have  dirt^  you 
are  dirty  "  =  "  You  have  done  wrong,"  Leshe,  Among  the 
Zulus,  p.  170.  (These  and  other  references  to  the  evidence 
from  savage  society  I  owe  to  the  kindness  of  my  friend 
Mr  R.  Marett.) 


The   Ritual  of  Purification     113 

words,  and  thoughts  are  so  closely  correlated 
in  early  psychology,  the  term  "  unclean  word," 
"unclean  thought"  expresses  a  literal  belief: 
gradually,  as  the  concept  of  mind  and  soul 
becomes  more  and  more  immaterial,  we 
may  reach  the  spiritual  concept  of  mental 
purity  which  is  of  value  for  modern  ethics. 
The  example  quoted  above  reveals  the  Basuto 
at  the  half-way  point  in  this  evolution:  and 
a  certain  North- American  Indian  tribe,  whose 
customs  have  been  recorded  by  Miss  Alice 
Fletcher,  appears  to  have  reached  the  same 
mental  stage  ;  in  her  paper  called  the  "  Shadow 
of  a  Ghost  Lodge,"  ^  she  mentions  that  the 
kinsmen  who  sit  together  isolated  from  others 
and  mourning  the  dead  for  a  period  must 
rigidly  abstain  from  any  tales  of  fighting  or 
"bad  words,"  they  must  forget  old  injuries 
and  cancel  all  grudges.  The  mental  process 
that  leads  to  this  excellent  tapu  may  be 
stated  thus :  the  mourners  are  in  a  condition 
of  deep  impurity  which  they  are  endeavouring 

1   P.  301. 


114    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

to  cleanse  away  ;  quarrelling,  vindictive  speech, 
and  memories  would  intensify  the  impurity, 
because  all  these  are  associated  with  blood- 
shed and  death.  This  analogy  may  serve 
to  explain  the  curious  rule  prevailing  at 
Athens  that  anyone  who  laid  a  suppliant- 
bough  on  the  altar  in  the  Eleusinion  during 
the  period  of  the  Eleusinian  Mysteries  w^as 
liable  to  the  penalty  of  death  or  a  heavy  fine.^ 
I  would  suggest  that  the  underlying  thought 
is  the  same:  the  laying  the  suppliant-bough 
indicated  a  grievance  and  was  a  legally  quarrel- 
some act,  and  therefore  a  violation  of  the  purity 
of  the  solemn  season.  It  was  probably  a 
similar  chain  of  reasoning  that  induced  the 
Greeks  and  other  races  of  the  higher  religion 
to  enforce  silence  before  and  during  the 
sacrifice,  not  merely  in  order  that  the  priest 
should  not  be  disturbed  by  the  chatter  of 
the  crowd ;  for  the  word  used  for  this  sacred 
silence  is  ev(j)r][Mia,  "  auspicious  speech " :  it  is 
obvious  that  the  original   motive  of  the  rule 

1  Andoc,  DeMyst.,  110. 


The  Ritual  of  Purification     115 

was  to  guard  against  the  utterance  of  any 
impure  word  that  might  produce  an  ill-omened 
condition  of  mind  in  the  congregation. 

Of  this  development  of  the  idea  of  spiritual 
from  that  of  ritualistic  purity,  the  language 
of  certain  of  the  higher  races  affords  the 
same  indication  as  we  find  in  the  Basuto 
phrase :  the  Latin  "  purus "  and  the  Greek 
KaOapoq  and  (^otySo?  themselves  have  an  original 
material  or  physical  significance ;  the  blood 
that  is  shed  and  the  unburied  corpse  emit  a 
"  miasma,"  a  defiling  atmosphere  charged  with 
dangerous  spirits,  and  the  same  word  /xtao-/Aa 
comes  to  denote  a  spiritual  corruption  of  the 
soul:  touching  a  corpse  is  called  "sin"  in 
the  Zend-Avesta;^  and  it  is  significant  that 
the  same  word  which  is  used  to  express  the 
material  idea  of  impurity  in  the  Old  Testament 
in  the  earlier  books  of  the  Law  is  employed 
in  the  later  and  more  advanced  ethical 
vocabulary  of  the  Bible  for  a  real  sin  against 
God  as  understood  in  the  modern  sense. 

1   Op.  cit.,  p.  102. 


ii6    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

Again,  we  have  other  evidence  besides  the 
hnguistic  that  the  earhest  conception  of  sin 
which   we   can   call   spiritual    was    still    half- 
materialistic,  and   was   still   closely   allied   to 
that   of  bodily   impurity.     In   the   theory  of 
earlier  ritual,  the    sin   can   be   washed   away 
like  a  physical  taint,  the  atonement  takes  the 
form   of    certain   lustrations,    and   repentance 
is  not  considered  necessary  as  a  moral  con- 
dition of  release.     And  to  the  same  middle 
stage    of    development    belongs    the    process 
known   as   the   transference   of  sin,    whereby 
the    sin    can    be    extracted   as    if    it   were   a 
substance  from  the  person  of  the  sinner  and 
transferred   into    another   man    or   animal   or 
even  an  inanimate  object.     Think  of  sin  as 
an  inner  vapour  or  exhalation  and  the  idea  of 
quasi-mechanical    transference   is   intelligible.^ 
It  no  doubt  belongs  to  a  comparatively  early 

1  The  same  kind  of  ceremonious  logic  inspires  the 
practice  of  the  Damaras,  who,  when  making  peace  with 
an  alien  tribe,  go  into  a  river  with  their  foes  and  throw 
water  into  their  faces  to  wash  away  enmity. — Sir  J.  E. 
Alexander,  Expedition  and  Discoveries,  vol.  ii.  p.  171. 


The  Ritual  of  Purification     117 

period  of  savage  religion.  Among  the  Atkans, 
for  instance,^  we  hear  of  such  a  release  as  this : 
the  sin,  which  in  this  case  was  a  gross  violation 
of  a  natural  law  of  the  sex-instinct,  was  made 
to  enter  into  certain  weeds  which  were  worn 
about  the  person,  and  then,  under  a  clear  sun 
were  carefully  thrown  away,  the  sun  himself 
being  called  to  witness  the  act  of  transference. 
In  the  ancient  Peruvian  Church,  the  shaking 
off  of  evils  was  a  great  public  festival :  bands 
of  warriors  marched  forth  crying  out,  "  Go 
forth,  all  evils,"  and  then  bathed  in  the  river, 
while  the  people  shook  out  their  clothes  from 
the  doors.  ^  A  similar  record  speaks  of  the 
Inca  praying  to  the  river-god  to  bear  away 
his  sins,  which  he  had  confessed  in  the  sight 
of  the  sun.  And  during  the  Peruvian  puri- 
fication a  similar  rule  prevailed  to  that  which 
was  noticed  above,  that  all  abusive  language 
and  strife  was  to  be  avoided.     Or  again,  the 

1  VeniaminofF  ap.  PetrofF,  Alaska,  p.  158. 

2  Molina,    Fables    and    Rites    of   the     Yncas    (Hakluyt 
Society),  p.  22, 


ii8    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

belief  that  the  sin  is  an  evil  spirit  that  can  be  in- 
duced to  find  another  living-lodgment,  suggests 
the  scapegoat,  a  familiar  figure  in  Leviticus  and 
in  Greek  ritual,  the  animal  who  bears  away 
with  it  into  the  wilderness  the  sins  of  the 
people,  or  is  put  to  death  with  the  uttered 
prayer  that  into  it  may  enter  all  the  evils 
of  the  community.  The  Judaic  record  tells 
us  that  Aaron  "confessed  over  him  all  the 
iniquities  of  the  children  of  Israel  .  .  .  putting 
them  on  the  head  of  the  goat";  after  this, 
as  the  animal  was  in  a  high  degree  of  sin- 
infection,  both  Aaron  and  the  man  who  led  it 
away  into  the  wilderness  must  wash  and  change 
their  clothes.^  The  Egyptian  rite  described  by 
Herodotus,^  shows  us  the  same  idea  differently 
worked  out :  the  head  of  the  animal  is  severed 
with  the  imprecation  that  it  may  bear  the  evils 
of  the  community,  and  is  then  either  thrown 
into  the  river  so  that  the  stream  may  carry 
them  away,  or  is  sold  to  the  Hellenes  wherever 
there  happens  to  be  a  Hellenic  market :  Hero- 

1  Lev.  xvii.  2  g^  39. 


The  Ritual  of  Purification     119 

dotus  does  not  tell  us  the  reason  of  this,  which, 
however,  is  easily  divined :  the  Hellene  is  the 
stranger  who,  as  the  Egyptians  hoped,  might 
eat  the  infected  flesh  and  thereby  absorb  into 
his  alien  person  the  people's  sins  ;  for  the  eating 
of  other  people's  sins  is  a  recognised  primitive 
process  of  transference/  What  is  unique  in 
the  Egyptian  management  of  the  ceremony 
is  the  skilful  combination  of  religion  and  trade. 
Finally,  the  ritual  may  demand  a  human 
scapegoat,  who  will  fulfil  exactly  the  same 
function  as  the  animal.  He  may  be  put  to 
death,  or  driven  over  the  border,  carrying 
away  the  national  sins :  he  may  be  very  vile, 
and  therefore  a  fitting  receptacle  for  sin,  like 
the  "  KaOapiJia"  the  "  purifying  man "  in  the 
Attic  festival  of  the  Thargelia,  who  was  led 
through  the  streets,  whipped  with  rods,  and 
at  one  time  burnt ;  or  the  slave  at  Marseilles,^ 
who  was  fed  up  and  reverentially  treated  for 

1  The  cathartic  process  of  transference  applied  to  plague 
as  well  as  actual  sin,  e.g.  Aristotle,  Frag.^  454,  transference 
of  disease  into  a  raven. 

2  Serv.,  ^n.  3,  57. 


120    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

a  year,  and  then  was  led  forth  in  solemn 
procession  through  the  streets  and  expelled 
from  the  city,  praying  that  on  him  might 
fall  all  the  evils  of  the  community:^  or  the 
scapegoat-man  may  be  exceptionally  holy, 
being  the  better  able,  through  his  very  holi- 
ness, to  absorb  harmlessly  and  dissipate  the 
evils  of  others.  Thus  even  the  miserable 
victim  of  the  Thargelia  was  mysteriously  in- 
vested with  a  certain  sacred  character,  and 
seems  once  to  have  been  regarded  in  a  certain 
degree  as  the  counterpart  of  the  divinity.^ 

Much  of  this  ritual  of  sin-transference  is 
altogether  independent  of  the  higher  gods ; 
it  is  worked  by  mesmeric  or  mimetic  or 
mechanical  magic.  At  a  later  period  it  is 
harmonised  with  their  service  and  accom- 
panied with  prayer ;  and  at  this  stage  we  note 
a  curious  ritualistic  phenomenon.  Blood,  the 
primeval   source   of  impurity,  becomes  itself 

1  In  modem  India  a  criminal  and  his  wife  sometimes 
undertake  to  transfer  into  their  own  persons  the  sins  of  the 
Rajah  and  the  Rani  :  Anthrop.  Journ.,  IpOl,  p.  302. 

'^   Plde  chapter  on  Apollo  Ritual,  Cults,  vol.  iv. 


The   Ritual  of  Purification     121 

a  purifier,  not  by  the  law  similia  similibus 
curantur,  but  owing  to  the  growing  power  of 
the  sacrificial  concept.  "  The  blood  of  bulls 
and  goats  can  wash  away  sins,"  because  the 
animal  that  has  been  consecrated  by  contact 
with  the  altar  becomes  charged  with  a  divine 
potency,  and  its  sacred  blood,  poured  over  the 
impure  man,  absorbs  and  disperses  his  impurity. 
Illustrations  are  easily  gathered  from  Hellenic 
ritual,^  which  frequently  employed  the  blood 
of  swine  for  cathartic  purposes.  On  an  early 
vase-painting  we  see  the  hero  Theseus  seated 
on  the  altar  of  God  the  Atoner  with  pig's 
blood  running  down  his  body  to  cleanse  him 
from  the  slaughter  of  the  brigands.^  In  the 
Judaic  rule  the  blood   of  the  red  heifer  was 

1  Cf.  Blood-purification  in  Vedic  ritual,  Hillebrandt, 
Vedische  Opfer  und  Zauher,  p.  179  (evil  spirits  driven  away 
by  a  reed  dipped  in  blood  of  the  sacrifice,  p.  1 76)  :  in  the 
Lupercalia  at  Rome  the  foreheads  of  youths  were  smeared 
with  the  blood  of  the  sacrificed  goat  and  dog  and  then 
wiped  with  wool  dipped  in  milk,  probably  a  piacular 
ceremony  ;  vide  W.  Fowler,  The  Roman  Festivals,  p.  311. 

2  Cf.  Apollon.  Rhod.,  4,  478,  for  pig's  blood  in  purifica- 
tion from  murder. 


122     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

first  sprinkled  by  the  priest  before  the 
tabernacle  of  the  congregation  seven  times, 
but  for  special  purposes  of  lustration  the 
"  water  of  separation  "  was  used,  that  is,  water 
made  holy  by  being  mingled  with  the  ashes  of 
the  heifer  that  had  been  burnt.  We  have  a 
curious  illustration  of  the  double  character  of 
this  water  of  separation :  being  consecrated 
and  holy,  it  was  powerful  to  cleanse  away  stain 
and  sin :  yet  its  own  impure  composition  was 
not  wholly  forgotten,  for  he  who  sprinkled  the 
water  or  touched  it  was  unclean  till  evening.^ 

These  ideas  belong  to  very  old-world  thought, 
yet  their  reflex  abides  with  us  still  in  the  heart 
of  a  spiritual  creed ;  for  their  association  is 
clear  with  the  Christian  conception  of  the 
transference  of  sin  and  of  the  divine  victim  that 
takes  upon  himself  the  sins  of  the  people. 

As  far  as  we  have  examined  it  as  yet,  the 
concept  of  a  "  pure  heart "  is  not  necessarily 
wholly  ethical ;  it  is  often  coexistent  with 
the  ideas  of  sin  that  do  not  clearly  recognise 

^  Numbers  c.  19. 


The  Ritual  of  Purification     123 

moral  responsibility  or  the  essential  differ- 
ence between  deliberate  wrong-doing  and 
the  ritualistic  or  accidental  or  involuntary  sin. 
In  the  middle  stage  of  ethical  -  religious 
growth,  an  innocent  (Edipus  may  yet  be 
regarded  as  770,9  avayvo^,  impure  body  and 
soul.  The  final  point  is  reached  when  it  is 
reahsed  that  the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats 
cannot  wash  away  sin,  that  nothing  external 
can  defile  the  heart  or  soul,  but  only  evil 
thoughts  and  evil  will.  This  purged  and 
idealised  concept  will  then  in  the  progressive 
religions  revolt  against  its  own  parentage,  and 
will  prompt  the  eternal  antagonism  of  the 
prophet  against  the  ritual  priest,  of  the  Christ 
against  the  Pharisee. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  trace  the  points 
of  this  long  development,  which  has  here  been 
hastily  sketched,  among  the  higher  races  of 
the  old  world  ;  but  a  brief  and  partial  indi- 
cation of  its  history  among  some  of  them 
must  here  suffice.  We  are  all  acquainted  with 
the  final  evolution  of  the   idea  of  purity   in 


124    The   Evolution  of  Religion 

Judaic  history :  but  the  phenomena  of  its 
embryonic  stages,  as  revealed  in  the  ritual 
books  of  the  Old  Testament,  may  not  be  so 
familiar.  They  present  the  Hebrew  mind  in 
regard  to  this  particular  as  on  the  same  level 
with  the  Zarathustrian  Persian,  the  Vedic 
Indian,  and  the  Hellene  of  the  seventh  century. 
Purity  is  the  strictest  law  of  Jahve,  the  pure 
god,  who  intimates  that  he  would  punish 
Aaron  with  death  if  he  heedlessly  entered  the 
holy  place  without  purification.^  But  the 
processes  by  which  it  is  secured  are  mechani- 
cal, quasi-magical,  and  the  concept  itself 
appears  more  materialistic  than  spiritual,  rit- 
ualistic rather  than  ethical  in  our  sense:  the 
processes  of  cleansing  are  such  as  the  use  of 
incense,  lustrations  with  blood,  water,  and  even 
fire,  cathartic  methods  which  are  almost  uni- 
versal :  we  hear  nothing  of  prayer  or  repent- 
ance. Blood  is  the  chief  impurity,  whether 
shed  deliberately,  accidentally,  or  righteously. 
The    warriors    after   battle   must  be   purified 

1  Levit.  xvi.  2. 


The   Ritual  of  Purification     125 

before  they  enter  the  camp.^  Murder  has 
indeed  become  a  tribal  offence,  and  this  marks 
a  great  advance  in  the  social  development  of 
human  society :  no  satisfaction  such  as  the 
were-gilt  was  allowed  for  murder ;  but  it  is 
regarded  as  a  sin  rather  than  a  crime,  and  its 
sinfulness  is  the  uncleanness  of  the  land  on 
which  the  blood  is  shed.  "  Blood  defileth 
the  land,"  and  "  I  the  Lord  dwell  among  the 
children  of  Israel. "  ^  Even  the  accidental  homi- 
cide must  fly  to  the  city  of  refuge,  not  merely 
to  escape  the  avenger  of  blood,  who  represents 
the  old  family  right  of  the  blood-feud,  but  to 
rid  the  land  of  the  impurity  of  his  presence. 
Nor  must  he  return  till  the  death  of  the  high 
priest.^  This  latter  restriction  has  not  yet 
been  explained,  so  far  as  I  am  aware.  I 
venture  the  explanation  that  the  high  priest 
is  regarded  here  as  the  temporary  representa- 
tive of  Jahve,  and  as  infected  with  the  impurity 
that   cleaves  to  the  outraged  god ;  but  when 

1  Numbers  xxxi.  1 9.  ^  Numbers  xxxv. 

3  Numbers  xxxv.  25. 


126    The  Evolution   of  Religion 

he  dies,  the  stain  that  has  been  put  upon  the 
god  fades  away  and  his  wrath  ceases.     Finally, 
we  may  note  the  rule  that  when  the  murderer 
could  not  be  discovered,  the  nearest  city  must 
offer  cathartic  sacrifices,  "  and  thy  sin  " — that 
is,  the  ritualistic  sin  of  having  an  impure  spot 
of  ground  in  one's  territory — "shall  then  be 
forgiven  thee."  ^     In  fact  the  Judaic  law  con- 
cerning homicide   as   shown   in   these   books, 
though  it  has  advanced  far  beyond  savagery, 
and  has  even   attained   to   the   modern   view 
that  manslaying  concerns  the  whole  community, 
is  yet  barbaric  on  the  whole.     The  concept  of 
purity  aided  development  up  to  a  certain  point 
and  then  probably  retarded  it.     On  the  other 
hand,  in  the  department  of  sexual  morality  its 
operation  was  most  powerful  for  good  ;  it  con- 
secrated and  safeguarded  the  fundamental  laws 
if  it  did  not  actually  construct  or  evoke  them  ; 
but,  as  we  should  expect,  the  sexual  purity  of 
the  Hebrew  code  remains  a  religious  law  and 
does  not  pass  into  the  domain  of  secular  ethic. 

1  Deuteron.  xxi. 


The   Ritual  of  Purification     127 

Another  religion  that  is  of  equal  value  for 
our  present  purpose  is  the  Zarathustrian. 
Trusting  as  far  as  we  may  the  translation  and 
interpretation  of  its  sacred  books,  we  may 
gather  the  impression  from  the  study  of  them 
that  no  religion  on  the  earth  has  ever  been 
under  such  bondage  to  the  cathartic  ideal  as 
this  one ;  nor  does  it  appear  very  profitable  at 
first  sight  to  put  the  question  here  of  the 
influence  of  the  idea  of  purity  on  religion,  law, 
and  morals,  for  the  idea  seems  all-absorbing 
and  these  three  to  have  no  independent  exist- 
ence apart  from  it.  It  creates  for  the  Mazdean 
believer  a  morality  of  its  own,  with  which  the 
secular  systems  have  little  or  nothing  to  do. 
"Oh,  maker  of  the  world,"  asks  Zarathustra 
of  Ahura  Mazda,  "  can  he  be  clean  again  who 
has  eaten  of  the  carcase  of  a  dog  or  the  corpse 
of  a  man  ?  "  The  deity  answers — "  He  cannot, 
oh  holy  Zarathustra."^  Nor  is  there  any 
purification  possible  for  the  unforgivable  sin 
of  walking  about  after  fifteen  years  of  age  were 

1  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  vol.  iv.  part  i.  p.  81. 


128     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

reached  without  a  girdle  or  a  proper  shirt : 
"such  a  one  goes  henceforth  with  power  to 
destroy  the  world  of  righteousness."  ^  On  the 
other  hand,  the  highest  act  of  righteousness 
which  brings  forgiveness  of  all  sins  to  him  who 
performs  it  is  the  pulling  down  of  a  dakhma, 
the  scaffold  on  which  the  corpses  were  hung 
according  to  the  Persian  system  of  burial, 
after  it  had  served  its  purpose ;  for  naturally 
it  was  a  focus  of  impurity,  and  demons  con- 
gregated there  in  swarms.^  And  the  Persian 
concept  of  purity  makes  its  own  law.  As  the 
ritual  of  cleansing  is  the  prime  article  of  the 
Zarathustrian  code,  so  the  sacrilegious  cleanser, 
that  is,  the  amateur  who  tried  to  purify  another 
without  knowledge  of  the  Mazdean  ceremonies, 
brought  sterility  upon  the  land  and  was 
punished  with  death.  ^  And  death  was  the 
penalty  for  him  who  dared  to  carry  a  corpse 
alone,  for  the  dead  body  spread  around  the 
contagion  of  a  myriad  "drugs"   or   demons, 

1  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  vol.  iv.  part  i.  p.  204. 
2/6.  p.  88.  "  ^Ih.  p.  136. 


The   Ritual  of  Purification     129 

and  two  men  at  least  must  set  hand  to  it  to 
prevent  an  intolerable  epidemic  of  impurity/ 
Legislation  in  the  Zend-Avesta  is  merciless 
beyond  any  recorded  code  ;  we  must  suppose 
that  it  was  mainly  idle  thunder,  or  Persia 
would  have  been  depopulated.  The  whole 
universe  of  Mazdeism  is  permeated  with  these 
cathartic  ideas,  and  a  secular  or  physical  view 
of  things  scarcely  glimmers  through :  the 
ritual  order  dominated  what  we  call  the 
material  as  well  as  the  spiritual  world ;  the 
sun,  moon,  and  stars  are  purified  by  the  Word. 
On  this  basis  arose  a  religion  of  great  exalta- 
tion and  a  religious  fervour  of  rare  intensity : 
and  the  sacred  books  of  Persia  are  of  great 
value  for  the  present  inquiry,  for  they  show 
us  more  clearly  than  any  other  record  the 
spiritual  concept  of  the  pure  heart  emerging 
from  the  ritualistic  idea ;  while  it  is  often 
hard  in  any  particular  text  to  distinguish 
between  the  lower  and  the  higher  significance. 
When    God   speaks   to   the    prophet    thus — 

1  Sacred  Books  of  the  Eastj  vol.  iv.  p.  28. 

9 


130     ihe   Evolution  01  Religion 

"  Purity  is  for  man,  next  to  life,  the  highest 
good :  that  purity,  O  Zarathustra,  that  is  in 
the  religion  of  Mazda  for  him  who  cleanses 
himself  with  good  thoughts,  words,  and 
deeds,"  ^  we  believe  we  have  reached  a  high 
ethical  conception  ;  but  the  phrase  is  supposed 
by  Darmesteter  to  refer  to  him  who  cleanses 
himself  according  to  the  prescriptions  of  the 
law.  Yet  in  their  cathartic  code  were  the 
germs  of  an  advanced  morality,  and  truthful- 
ness and  chastity  were  fostered  by  it.^  The 
lustrations  were  partly  of  the  primitive  type, 
taken  over,  as  usual,  from  a  lower  stratum  of 
religion  ;  their  most  interesting  features  are  the 
cleansing  words  that  accompanied  them,  which 
were  not  usually  prayers  but  spells,  formulas 
of  magic   potency,    but   drawn   from   a   high 

^  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  vol.  iv.  p.  56  ',  cf.  p.  141. 

2  The  virtue  of  chastit}^  is  religious  rather  than  ethical ; 
the  courtesan  is  reprobated  because  she  mingles  the  seed 
of  believers  and  unbelievers  alike,  ih.  p.  205.  Yet  the 
Zarathustrian  system  escaped  the  extravagant  exaltation 
of  mere  virginity  that  is  found  in  early  Christian  literature  : 
''the  man  who  has  a  wife  is  far  above  him  who  lives  in 
continence  "  (Fargard^  iv.-iii.  b,  p.  46). 


The   Ritual  of  Purification     131 

religion,  such  as  these,  for  instance : — "  The 
will  of  the  Lord  is  the  Law  of  Righteousness  "  ; 
"  Holiness  is  the  best  of  all  Good :  it  is  also 
Happiness."  ^  Even  the  virtue  of  philanthropy 
is  given  cathartic  value  in  a  spell-formula,  "  he 
who  relieves  the  poor  makes  Ahura  King," 
recited  before  the  person  was  washed  with 
the  holy  water  of  Mazda  and  the  "  gomez " 
of  an  ox.^ 

In  a  certain  sense  the  Mazdean  religion  has 
been  the  "  purest "  the  world  has  known  ;  but 
the  high  spiritual  concept  of  purity  that  it 
evolved  never  escaped  nor  struggled  to 
escape,  as  did  the  Judaic  and  Hellenic,  from 
the  bondage  to  ritual.  Therefore  the  religion 
was  doomed  to  ceremoniousness  and  sacer- 
dotalism ;  and  the  modern  student  who  is 
fascinated  with  its  frequent  outbursts  of  genius 
and  its  deep,  whole-hearted  conviction  must  be 
prepared  for  the  inevitable  bathos  that  awaits 
him.  Its  remoteness  from  the  modern  and 
civilised  view  of  things  may  be  estimated  from 

1  Sacred  Books,  vol.  iv.  p.  21 6.  2  /^  p  216. 


132     The   Evolution  of  Religion 

the  Zarathustrian  text,  in  which  the  prophet 
exalts  the  priestly  medicine-man  who  heals  the 
diseased  limb  with  a  cleansing  spell  and  by  the 
ejection  of  the  demon,  above  the  surgeon  who 
heals  it  with  a  knife.  ^ 

It  is  with  a  feeling  of  relief  that  we  now 
turn  to  the  survey  of  the  Hellenic  phenomena, 
passing  by  as  we  must  the  Vedic  and  the 
Islamic,  which  appear  to  be  of  lesser  im- 
portance so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  study 
them.  The  Hellenic  religion  more  than  all 
others  of  the  ancient  world  is  the  mirror 
of  the  manifold  civilisation  of  a  people ; 
for  its  lesser  intensity  allowed  it  more 
varied  application,  and  it  was  obliged  to  re- 
concile itself  speedily  with  the  utilitarian  and 
secular  forces  of  rational  progress,  which  there 
was  no  sacerdotal  caste  strong  enough  to 
oppose.  And  it  is  in  the  light  of  this  religion 
therefore  that  the  concept  of  purity  can  best 
be  studied  in  its  relations  to  law  and  morality. 
The  history  of  the  cathartic  ritual  in  Greece 

1  Sacred  Books;  vol.  iv.  p.  87. 


The   Ritual   of  Purification     133 

does  not  begin  till  the  eighth  century ;  for 
the  Homeric  age  was  strikingly  sane,  cheerful, 
and  secular  in  its  views  about  such  things. 
Though  Hektor  feels,  as  any  modern  gentle- 
man would  feel,  that  it  was  wrong  to  go  to  a 
religious  service  '^bedabbled  in  gore  and  filth," 
though  Odysseus  purifies  his  house  with 
sulphur-fumigation  after  the  carnage  of  the 
fight,  the  world  for  whom  Homer  sang  does 
not  appear  to  have  been  burdened  with  the 
ceremoniousness  of  purification  or  with  dread 
of  the  impurity  of  blood  and  death,  or  with 
any  sort  of  care  for  the  vengeance  or  miasma 
of  the  ghost.  An  age  that  could  rise  to  the 
height  of  such  a  sentiment  as  ''best  of  omens 
is  it  to  fight  for  one's  country,"  was  likely  to 
be  healthy-minded  in  all  such  matters.  The 
first  mention  of  purification  for  bloodshed  is 
in  a  poem  of  Arctinos  of  the  eighth  century ; 
and  a  certain  ritual- code  of  purity  begins  to 
emerge  in  Hesiod.  Henceforward  cathartic 
legislation  comes  to  be  very  rife  in  Greece, 
emanating    chiefly   from    two    centres    as    it 


134    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

seems,  Delphi  and  Crete.  The  gods  to  whom 
the  domain  of  ritual-purity  belongs  especially 
are  Apollo,  Zeus,  and  Dionysos ;  at  the 
same  time  the  ghostly  terrors  of  the  under- 
world appear  to  be  gaining  a  greater  hold 
on  the  Hellenic  imagination,  and  "  catharsis  "  is 
specially  needed  to  deal  with  these.  Probably 
all  this  is  only  a  revival  of  aboriginal  practices 
and  superstitions  rooted  in  the  Hellenic  soil,  a 
religion  which  the  intellectualism  of  Homeric 
civilisation  had  happily  suppressed  for  a  time, 
but  which  asserted  itself  with  renewed  strength 
when  that  civilisation  was  overthrown.  Yet  the 
revival,  though  apparently  a  "  set-back,"  bore 
fair  fruit  for  morality,  law,  and  even  religion. 
The  history  of  Greek  ethic  must  reckon  as  it 
has  not  yet  done  with  the  ritual  of  purity,  and 
the  history  of  Greek  law  with  the  fear  of  the 
ghost  and  the  miasma  of  bloodshed. 

At  first  the  idea  is,  as  usual,  ritualistic  and 
non-moral :  and  much  that  we  find  in  savage 
communities,  and  in  Judeea,  Persia,  and  India, 
we   find   again   in    Greece.     As   the  Hebrew 


The  Ritual  of  Purification     135 

warriors  were  purified  before  returning  to 
camp,  so  the  Macedonian  army  was  purified 
in  spring  before  the  campaign,^  and  the  mis- 
understood story  of  the  Phokians  daubing 
themselves  with  gypsum  before  battle  points 
to  a  cathartic  ritual/^  And  the  Hellenic 
ceremonies  agreed  with  those  of  most  other 
nations  in  regard  to  the  causes  of  uncleanness 
and  the  methods  of  deliverance :  fire,  water, 
blood,  onions,  the  skins  of  animals  sacrificed, 
even  clay  and  bran,  are  the  usual  purifying 
media.  In  one  method  of  KaOapai^  only  the 
Hellenic  ritual  is  unique  so  far  as  I  know : 
sacrificial  communion  with  God  was  some- 
times considered  an  effective  means  of  obliter- 
ating the  impurity  which  the  kinsmen  con- 
tracted by  a  death  in  the  family  :  at  Argos  the 
mourners  put  off  the  "  tapu  "  by  eating  of  the 
sacrifice  to  Apollo,  believing  that  the  spirit  of 
the  pure  god  in  the  sacred  food  could  destroy 

^  Livy,  40^  6,  1-3  :  the  whole  host  was  led  between  the 
severed  limbs  of  a  dog. 
2  Herod.,  8,  27. 


136    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

the  miasma  within  and  around  them.^  The 
strongholds  of  Pharisaic  purification  were  the 
rehgious  brotherhoods  of  Orphism  and  the 
earher  Pythagoreanism,  a  rehgious-philosophic 
school  closely  associated  with  the  former ;  in 
these  the  law  of  "  the  pure  life  "  is  a  cere- 
monious law,  specially  concerned  with  abstin- 
ence from  certain  food.  But  Greek  thought 
did  not  remain  long  on  this  level :  a  saying  is 
attributed  to  Charondas  of  Catana,  but  perhaps 
of  later  origin,  which  asserts  that  "  foul  speech 
is  a  defilement  of  the  soul";^  and  in  a  fragment 
of  Epicharmos  of  the  fifth  century,  we  have  the 
utterance  of  the  higher  gospel,  "If  thou  art 
pure  of  soul,  thou  art  pure  of  all  thy  body  " ; 
and  the  later  Pythagorean  literature,  such  as 
the  ''  Golden  Song  "  of  Hierocles,  contains  the 
doctrine  that  "  purity  of  soul  is  the  only  divine 
service " ;  "  God  has  no  more  familiar  abode 
on  the  earth  than  the  pure  soul."  And  to 
an   unknown   writer,   probably   of    the    same 

^  Plutarch,  Qucest.  Grcec,  24. 

2  Stobaeus^  Florileg.  Meineke,  vol.  ii.  p.  184. 


The   Ritual  of  Purification     137 

school,^  we  owe  the  dogma,  "  We  worship  God 
most  meetly  if  we  render  our  own  soul  pure 
from  every  stain  of  evil."  There  are  two 
epigrams  in  the  Anthology,  included  in  the 
fanciful  collection  of  Pythian  oracles,  express- 
ing the  same  idea  that  holiness  is  a  spiritual  fact 
independent  of  ceremonies  or  lustrations  :  "  Oh 
stranger,  if  holy  of  soul,  enter  the  shrine  of  the 
holy  God,  having  but  touched  the  lustral 
water  :  lustration  is  an  easy  matter  for  the 
good,  but  all  ocean  with  its  streams  cannot 
cleanse  the  evil  man."^  The  other  maintains 
as  clearly  as  Isaiah  or  the  New  Testament  the 
uselessness  of  all  mere  washing  of  hands  :  *'  The 
temples  of  the  gods  are  open  to  all  good  men, 
nor  is  there  any  need  of  purification  :  no  stain 
can  ever  cleave  to  virtue.  But  depart,  who- 
soever is  baneful  at  heart,  for  thy  soul  will 
never  be  washed  by  the  cleansing  of  the  body."  ^ 
The  better  Greek  mind  attained  this  free- 
dom the  more  easily  in  that  it  was  not  strongly 

1  Mullach,  Frag.  Philos.,  Adespota. 

2  Anth.  Pal,  14,  71.  ^  Ik  No.  74. 


138     The   Evolution  of  Religion 

or  generally  possessed  with  the  belief  in  the 
aboriginal  impurity  or  sinfulness  of  the  flesh 
and  the  earthly  life.  And  Greek  ritual  itself, 
conservative  as  it  was  and  never  abandoning 
its  code  of  purification,  comes  at  last  to  be 
influenced  by  this  freer  atmosphere  and  to 
reconcile  ceremonious  purity  with  a  higher 
moral  law.  Before  the  temple  of  Asclepios 
at  Epidauros  stood  the  text,  "Within  the 
incense-filled  sanctuary  one  must  be  pure  ;  and 
purity  is  to  have  righteous  thoughts."^  An 
inscription  on  a  temple  in  Rhodes  of  the  time 
of  Hadrian  ^  shows  a  strange  blend  of  primi- 
tive and  advanced  thought.  Its  preamble 
mentions  "  rules  concerning  righteous  entrance 
into  the  shrine."  "  The  first  and  greatest  rule 
is  to  be  pure  and  unblemished  in  hand  and 
heart  and  to  be  free  from  an  evil  conscience." 
Then  follows  the  usual  ceremonious  code  of 
rules     concerning     the     impurities     of    food, 

1  Wilamowitz,  Isyllos,  6;  Anth.  Pal.,  Adespota,  ccxxxiii.  h: 
cf.  inscription  from  Astypalaia  in  Collitz,  Dialect- Insckrif ten, 
No.  3472. 

2  C.I.G.  Ins.  Mar.  Mg.  1,  789. 


The   Ritual  of  Purification     139 

funerals,  and  natural  affections  of  the  body : 
and  the  last  clause  shows  the  ethical  idea 
penetrating  even  these,  for  the  code  prescribes 
that  a  person  may  enter  the  shrine  "on  the 
same  day  after  lawful  married  intercourse." 
This  means  that  the  adulteress  was  excluded, 
as  she  was  at  Athens  by  a  law  quoted  by 
Demosthenes.^  It  appears  then  that  the 
liberal  ethic  judgment  attributed  to  Theano, 
the  female  Pythagorean  teacher,  that  while 
lawful  intercourse  was  no  bar  to  participating 
in  a  religious  service  on  the  same  day,  the 
adulteress  was  to  be  for  ever  excluded,^  was 
not  wholly  out  of  accordance  with  the  ad- 
vanced ritualistic  code  of  Greece. 

The  above  is  some  slight  illustration  of  the 
development  of  the  Greek  concept  of  purity 
and  of  its  ethical  influence.  It  remains  to 
trace  its  action  in  a  very  important  depart- 
ment of  law — the  law  of  homicide.  Perhaps 
the  most  significant  distinction  between  the 
code  of  a  civilised  and  that  of  a  savage  or 

1  In  Neaeram^S  85.  2  Qem.  Alex.,  Strom.,  6l9,  Pott. 


140    The   Evolution   of  Religion 

barbaric  community  lies  in  their  respective 
attitudes  towards  manslaughter  or  murder : 
in  the  latter  society  it  is  mainly  an  affair 
between  the  families  concerned,  to  be  settled 
by  the  were-gilt  or  the  blood-feud :  in  the 
former  the  whole  community  feels  itself  to 
be  deeply  concerned.  Our  Teutonic  ancestors, 
at  the  time  of  Tacitus  and  for  centuries  after, 
remained  at  the  lower  stage,  though  we  discern 
that  the  legal  genius  of  the  Icelanders  was 
impelling  them  towards  the  higher  even  before 
Christianity  reached  them.  A¥hat  is  strange 
is  that  some  societies  appear  to  have  at- 
tained a  high  general  level  of  civilisation  with- 
out making  this  momentous  advance :  the 
Homeric  world,  for  instance,  was  scarcely 
abreast  with  the  early  Icelandic  in  this 
respect,  although  we  may  see  signs  that  the 
higher  idea  was  ready  to  emerge  in  the  later 
Homeric  period/      Then  follows  a  blank  in 

1  I  believe  that  the  trial  scene  on  the  shield  of  Achilles^ 
rightly  interpreted,  implies  that  the  community  are  begin- 
ning to  decide  whether  the  avenger  shall  accept  the  were- 
gilt  or  not. 


The  Ritual   of  Purification     141 

our  record  which  may  be  tentatively  filled  up 
by  the  interpretation  of  mythology,  until  in  the 
developed  Attic  law — which  we  know  better 
than  the  law  of  any  other  Greek  state — we  find 
the  modern  idea  fully  recognised  and  applied 
to  a  criminal  code,  probably  from  the  sixth 
century  onward,  though  traces  of  legal  bar- 
barism still  survive.  We  would  gladly 
discover  the  constructive  forces,  spiritual  or 
political,  that  brought  this  great  reform  about. 
The  anthropology  of  our  contemporary  savage 
societies  has  not  yet  supplied  us  with  analo- 
gies that  we  could  apply  to  Greek  history :  a 
few  savage  states  have  indeed  spontaneously 
achieved  the  great  advance  from  the  blood- 
feud  to  a  public  law  of  homicide,  but  there 
is  no  record  showing  how  they  have  achieved 
it.  Some  waiters  have  supposed  that  the 
emergence  of  criminal  law  in  general  is  always 
due  to  some  great  increase  of  power  in  the 
central  government,  probably  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  monarchy.  But  as  a  universal 
axiom    this     cannot     be     accepted ;     for,    as 


142     The   Evolution  of  Religion 

Steinmetz  in  his  treatise  on  "  The  Develop- 
ment of  Punishment "  ^  has  shown,  such  a 
suggested  cause  is  not  found  operative  in  the 
backward  communities  of  modern  times  that 
have  developed  a  public  criminal  law.  Nor 
would  it  be  reasonable  to  urge  that  the 
central  authority  was  stronger  in  Greece  of 
the  seventh  century  than  in  the  earlier  mon- 
archical period.  Probably  Steinmetz  is  right 
in  his  belief  that  among  savage  societies  the 
earliest  criminal  law  arises  from  some  intense 
feeling  of  hatred  or  dread  excited  by  acts 
that  violate  religious  feeling  or  secular 
interests.  One  of  the  earliest  crimes  to  be 
punished  by  death  at  the  hands  of  the  society 
is  incest :  the  horror  that  it  excites  among 
savages  is  a  feeling  that  we  may  call  religious. 
We  may  not  be  able  to  show  indeed  that  the 
primitive  ideas  of  purity  would  explain  the 
earliest  complicated  codes  of  human  marriage : 
but  the  circles  of  kinship  that  are  thus  estab- 
lished seem  certainly  to  have  been  consecrated 

1  Die  Entwickelung  der  Strafe^  vol.  ii.  p.  347. 


The  Ritual  of  Purification     143 

at  a  very  early  time  by  the  concept  of  purity 
that  came  to  be  attached  to  them/  Now  it 
is  probable  that  a  similar  religious  feeling  was 
operative  in  the  case  of  homicide. 

If  in  any  given  society  the  primitive  belief 
in  the  impurity  of  bloodshed  became 
intensified  beyond  a  certain  point,  homicide 
might  easily  come  to  be  regarded  no  longer 
as  a  matter  to  be  settled  by  the  families  of  the 
slayer  and  the  slain,  but  as  the  deep  concern 
of  the  people  of  the  land.  We  have  seen 
that  it  was  just  this  religious  concept  of 
impurity  that  brought  the  act  under  the 
cognisance  of  the  national  religious  law  of 
Israel :  the  people  are  terrified  because  the  soil 
has  been  made  impure  and  their  god  has  been 
stained.     In   the   Zend-Avesta  we   find   that 

1  An  example  is  given  by  Steinmetz,  oj).  cit.  ii.  p.  336^  of 
the  punishment  of  incest  among  the  Paseinaher  :  the  guilty 
pair  were  buried  alive  with  a  hollow  pipe  reaching  from 
their  mouths  to  the  top  of  the  earth  :  if  they  survived 
seven  days  of  this  agony  their  lives  were  spared :  no  ex- 
planation is  offered^  but  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  law 
is  inspired  by  the  idea  that  the  earth  could  absorb  their 
impurity. 


144    The   Evolution  of  Religion 

the  slaying  of  a  water-dog  was  an  impure  act 
against  God,  and  was  avenged  by  the  whole 
community ;  and  sacrifice  was  offered  to 
appease  the  holy  soul  of  the  dog.^  These  facts 
then  offer  some  analogy  for  the  theory  that  I 
would  suggest,  namely,  that  the  civilised  law 
in  Greece  concerning  homicide  arose  in  the 
post- Homeric  period  through  an  intensifica- 
tion of  the  feeling  concerning  the  impurity 
of  bloodshed  and  owing  to  the  greater  hold 
that  the  terrors  of  the  ghostly  world  had  come 
to  gain  over  the  later  Hellenic  imagination  ; 
for  the  ghost  or  the  Erinys  of  the  dead  is  the 
embodiment  of  the  miasma  that  arises  from 
the  slaying  ;  and  the  ghost  knows  how  to  drive 
it  home,  and  is  no  respecter  of  persons,  but 
can  make  a  whole  area  uninhabitable.  The 
religious  phenomenon  and  the  legal  fact  that 
I  would  connect  as  cause  and  effect  are  not 
found  in  the  Homeric  period :  both  are 
found  coexisting  in  the  later.  And  much 
legendary  evidence   accords   with   this   hypo- 

-   Sacred  Books,  vol.  iv.  p.  I69  (pt.  i.). 


The  Ritual  of  Purification     145 

thesis.  Perhaps  the  earhest  indication  of  the 
emergence  of  the  idea  in  Greek  society  that 
certain  kinds  of  homicide  concern  the  State,  is 
found  in  the  legends  about  exile  and  ex- 
communication for  the  shedding  of  kindred 
blood,  the  exile,  for  instance,  of  Bellerophon 
and  Ixion.  Such  exile  is  not  the  ordinary 
flight  of  the  homicide  to  avoid  the  avenger  of 
blood  ;  for  in  the  cases  where  a  man  is  of  the 
same  kin  as  the  slain,  there  is  no  family 
avenger,  but  the  whole  community  in  horror 
cast  him  out  lest  the  curse  should  infect  them- 
selves. Kinsmen's  blood  was  more  sacred  than 
other,  therefore  the  shedding  it  spread  the 
greater  impurity  over  the  land.  And  the  Greek 
legends  suggest  that  this  offence  was  one  of  the 
earliest  in  the  legal  history  of  the  race  which 
awoke  the  religious  conscience  of  the  State.  ^ 

1  Vide  Cults  of  the  Greek  States,  vol.  i.  pp.  66-69 : 
Steinnietz,  op.  cit.,  vol.  ii.  p.  345^  discusses  a  record  concern- 
ing the  Ossetes,  who  live  habitually  in  the  system  of  the 
blood-feud,  to  the  effect  that  a  person  guilty  of  parricide 
was  surrounded  and  burnt  in  his  house  by  the  whole  people, 
and  he  suggests  that  this  may  be  the  first  example  among 


them  of  a  State  cognisance  of  murder. 


10 


146    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

Now  if  we  assume  that  the  old  ideas  associ- 
ated with  kinship  came  to  be  extended 
to  the  whole  community  of  the  polis  — 
as  might  easily  happen  through  the  inter- 
marriage of  the  yivy] — then  a  similar  miasma 
would  be  caused  by  the  slaying  of  a  citizen 
as  by  kindred  murder:  the  State  would  feel 
the  supernatural  peril  of  the  act  and  would 
take  cognisance. 

The  reasons  for  supposing  that  this  was 
the  actual  order  in  the  Hellenic  evolution  of 
the  homicide  law  may  appear  to  rest  on  mere 
legends,  but  legends  are  often  direct  and  first- 
hand evidence  of  early  thought,  and  the  stories 
about  the  slayers  of  kindred  who  were  driven 
out  of  the  communities  and  who  were  the 
first  apphcants  for  the  ritual  of  purifi- 
cation, such  as  Ixion,  Orestes,  Theseus, 
accord  well  with  the  early  belief  that  the 
Erinyes  were  the  ghostly  avengers  of  kindred 
slaughter.  Then  we  find  that  in  the  Aithiopis, 
the  poem  of  Arctinos  of  Miletus,  Achilles  has 
to  leave  the  army  and   retire  to  Lesbos  for 


The  Ritual  of  Purification     147 

purification,  although  Thersites,  whom  he  has 
slain,  is  no  real  kinsman  of  his :  whence  we 
may  draw  the  conclusion  that  the  State  of 
Miletus,  in  the  eighth  century,  had  come  to 
take  cognisance  of  the  slaying  of  any  citizen. 
And  the  Argives,  in  the  fifth  or  fourth  century, 
offer  atonement  to  Zeus  Meilichios  for  a  civic 
massacre,  the  god  who  has  a  legendary  asso- 
ciation with  purification  for  the  shedding  of 
kindred  blood.  By  the  fifth  century  in  Athens 
the  religious  feeling  concerning  the  sacredness 
of  all  life  within  the  city  had  so  deepened  that 
even  the  slaying  of  a  slave  caused  a  miasma 
and  was  a  State  offence.^ 

Now  when  we  examine  certain  details  of 
Attic  law,  together  with  certain  expressions  of 
sentiment  concerning  homicide  in  the  classical 
writers  of  Attica,  we  see  the  clear  imprint  of 
its  origin.  Accidental  homicide  was  as  gravely 
regarded  by  the  Athens  of  the  fourth  century 
as  by  the  old  Hebrew  code :  such  homicides 
must  fly  over  the  border,  but  if  they  went  by 
1  Antiphon,  Or.  6,  p.  764:  cf.  Eurip.,  Hecuba,  pp.  291-292. 


148     The  Evolution   of  P.eligion 

a  certain  road,  the  State  refused  to  allow  the 
avenger  of  blood  to  follow  them :   they  must 
remain  in  exile  until  they  have  won  the  for- 
giveness of  one  of  the  kinsmen  of  the  dead.^ 
We  may  suppose  that  the  kinsmen  are  regarded 
as  taking  up  the  feud  of  the  ghost,  who  is  Hkely 
to  be  vindictive,  even  when  the  slaying  was  acci- 
dental.    Finally,  when  the  pardoned  homicide 
returns  he  must  go  through  elaborate  purifica- 
tions.      These   latter   were   to   wipe  off  the 
miasma,  not  to  ease  what  we  might  call  the 
burden  of  conscience.      And  the  community 
were  obhged  to  expel  temporarily  even  a  per- 
fectly innocent  man,  because  of  their  fear  of  the 
wrath  of  the  dead.     This  dread  of  the  ghost  is 
appealed  to  by  an  Attic  orator  as  a  motive  that 
should   influence   the  judges  to  condemn  the 
prisoner.^     The  first  legal  preliminary  in  a  case 
of  murder,  which  reveals  clearly  the  religious 
origin  of  the  State  law,  was  the  solemn  procla- 
mation, made  by  one  of  the  relatives  holding 

1  Demosthenes,  c.  Aristocrat.,  pp.  643-644. 

2  Antiphon,  p.  686. 


The   Ritual   of  Purification     149 

a  spear  at  the  funeral,  that  the  murderer  should 
keep  aloof  from  all  the  holy  and  public  places 
of  the  community/  And  Antiphon  strongly 
expresses  the  popular  sentiment  that  the 
unpunished  murderer  pollutes  the  public  altars 
and  vitiates  the  atmosphere  of  the  city :  ^  and 
the  whole  of  Plato's  legislation^  concerning 
homicide  is  based  on  the  idea  of  the  miasma 
arising  from  bloodshed,  and  is  quite  in  accord 
with  Attic  law.  The  exile  of  the  murderer 
purges  the  city  as  well  as  his  execution  ;  there- 
fore the  accused  was  allowed  to  go  out  of  the 
country  before  the  verdict.*  The  contagion 
was  worse  under  a  roof  than  in  the  open  air ; 
therefore  the  Athenian  judges  insisted  on 
trying  homicide  in  an  unroofed  court,  "lest 
they  should  be  under  one  roof  with  the  slayer."  ^ 
Also  it  is  part  of  primitive  animistic  belief 
that  such  miasma  could  cleave  to  things  which 
had   caused  the  death  of  a  man  :    hence  the 

1  Plato,  Laws,  873  A-B  :  Demosth.,  c.  Euerg.,  p.  II60. 

2  P.  749  ;  cf.  764.  3  Laws,  pp.  854,  865. 
^  Demosthenes,  c.  Aristocrat.,  p.  643. 

5  Antiphon,  p.  709- 


150    The   Evolution  of  Religion 

inanimate  object  such  as  an  axe  or  bar  of  iron 
might  be  solemnly  tried  and,  if  found  guilty, 
would  be  thrown  into  the  sea  to  rid  the  State 
of  infection  :  ^  the  same  superstition  explains  the 
old  English  law  that  a  waggon  which  ran  over 
a  man  and  caused  his  death  should  be  given  to 
God — "  deodand  "  :  that  is,  it  was  to  become  a 
perquisite  of  the  King,  who  represented  God. 

So  far  we  seem  to  discern  clearly  the  concept 
of  purity  evolving  State  law  in  a  very  vital 
matter.  And  this  is  a  great  achievement. 
But  it  might  easily  evolve  law  which  from  our 
point  ofview  would  be  unjust  and  superstitious. 
The  terrors  of  the  ghost,  the  inequitable 
wrath  of  a  pure  god,  the  insistence  on  the 
ritualistic  view  of  impurity,  might  retard  pro- 
gress and  prevent  the  evolution  of  the  highest 
law  which  regards  extenuating  circumstances 
and  admits  justifiable  homicide.  Such  law 
is  not  heard  of  in  the  Mosaic  books,  but  it 

1  Demosthenes^  op.  cit.,  p.  645  :  cf.  the  account  in 
Pausanias^  5,  27,  10^  of  the  purification  by  the  Eleans  at 
Olympia  of  the  bronze  ox  which  had  caused  the  death  of  a 
boy. 


The  Ritual  of  Purification     151 

existed  in  the  Attic  code,^  which  specially  on 
this  account  may  be  called  civilised.  The 
court  which  tried  admitted  cases  of  homicide 
where  the  plea  of  justification  was  raised  was 
the  Delphinion,  and  its  foundation  legend 
claimed  that  it  was  instituted  to  try  Theseus 
for  slaying  the  Pallantids  who  attacked  him, 
and  that  the  plea  of  justifiable  homicide 
was  allowed.^  The  name  of  the  court 
shows  that  its  patron  is  the  pure  god,  and 
points  to  Crete  and  Delphi,  the  chief 
centres  of  the  ritual  of  purification.  Now 
it  is  quite  possible  that  this  momentous 
advance  in  law  may  have  been  prompted  by 
the  healthy  rationalism  of  the  early  Greek 
mind,  to  some  extent  by  secular  utilitarian 
thought,  which  reacted  on  the  religious  view 
of  purity.  We  shall  then  say  that  the  religion 
adapted  itself  dexterously  to  a  secular  move- 
ment, as  it  usually  did  in  Greece.     Or  it  may 

1  Drako  appears  to  have  systematised  it,  but  it  may  have 
existed  as  custom-law  before  his  period. 

2  Paus.,    1,   19,   1;    1,  28,   10:    Phit.,  vit.    Thes.,   12,   18: 
Demosth.,  c.  Aristocrat.,  74. 


152    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

be  the  truth  that  the  advance  was  due  to  a 
spontaneous  movement  within  the  religion 
itself,  beginning  perhaps  in  the  seventh  century, 
and  to  the  growing  consciousness  that  the 
purity  or  impurity  of  an  act  depended  on 
motive  and  will.  If  this  idea  penetrated  at 
an  early  time,  as  it  certainly  did  at  a  later, 
into  the  sacerdotal  circle,  then  the  priest  of 
Apollo  might  grant  or  withhold  purification 
according  to  the  degree  of  justification  the 
homicide  might  prove :  ^  in  this  case  a  court 
would  be  established  at  the  instigation  of  the 
purifying  god  to  consider  the  circumstances. 
This  explanation  must  remain  a  hypothesis,  but 
it  is  one  that  assumes  the  action  of  real  forces. 
Enough  has  been  said  to  illustrate  the 
intimate  association  of  the  idea  of  purity  with 
legal  progress,^  and  it  only  remains  to  indicate 

1  We  note  the  legend  that  purification  was  refused  to 
Ixion,  and  the  express  statement  that  no  one  would  purify 
King  Pausanias  from  his  brutal  crime  against  the 
Olynthian  maiden. 

2  The  procedure  by  ordeal^  prevalent  in  the  ancient 
world  and  common  among  contemporary  savages,  is  prob- 
ably derived  from  an  animistic  conception  of  purity  :  the 


The   Ritual  of  Purification     153 

very  briefly  its  impress  and  effect  on  religious 
institutions.  One  of  the  methods  most 
frequently  employed  to  attain  mental  purity 
or  freedom  from  the  evil  spirit  is  fasting ; 
from  all  human  societies,  primitive  and 
advanced,  we  could  gather  a  copious  stock  of 
illustration.  And  mankind  has,  on  the  whole, 
agreed  as  to  the  occasions  at  which  the  ritual 
is  desirable;  in  spring  before  the  crops  and 
the  first-fruits  appear,  before  the  warriors  go 
forth  to  battle,  before  any  kind  of  intimate 
communion  with  God,  when  the  family  is  in 
mourning  for  a  kinsman  and  evil  influences 
are  abroad,  fasting  has  been  practised  as  a 
mode  of  purging  the  body  and  safeguarding 
it  against  spiritual  harm  or  preparing  it  for 
the  privilege  of  divine  intercourse.  It  has 
been  held  necessary  before  any  mystic  initia- 

primitive  theory  appears  to  be  that,  if  the  person  is  inno- 
cent, the  pure  spirit  within  him  makes  his  body  able  to 
resist  the  trial,  and  is  not  dependent  upon  any  idea  of  a 
higher  god  of  righteousness.  The  ordeal  procedure  is 
very  common  in  African  society :  Post,  Afrikanisch. 
Jurisprud.,  2,  p.    110. 


154    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

tion,^  the  early  Christian  Church  prescribing 
it  for  the  days  preceding  the  Easter  com- 
munion ;  also  before  the  individual  can  attain 
the  divine  afflatus  of  prophecy  or  the  super- 
natural potency  for  expelling  evil  spirits  or 
working  wonder-cures.  "  Such  kind  goeth 
not  forth  save  by  prayer  and  fasting."  The 
psychological  basis  of  the  ritual  is  the  belief 
that  certain  foods,  and  finally  all  food,  are 
liable  to  engender  evil  influences  in  the 
body ;  and,  moreover,  the  experience  that  the 
abstinence  generates  a  peculiar  mental  con- 
dition of  exaltation,  ecstasy,  and  supra-normal 
self-confidence :  other  ideas,  such  as  the  dis- 
cipline of  self-denial,  that  come  to  gather  round 
the  practice  are  of  later  growth. 

From  the  same  primitive  view  of  the 
relations  between  our  body  and  the  spiritual 
world  has  arisen  the  enforcement  of  celibacy 
upon   the  priesthood.     To   trace  the  pheno- 

1  E.g.  the  Eleusiniarij  Mithraic^  and  Phrygian  Mysteries : 
for  examples  of  it  in  savage  initiation  rites^  see  Annual 
Report  Smithsonian  Institute,  1899-1900,  p.  435. 


The  Ritual  of  Purification     155 

menon,    which    is    commonly    or    exception- 
ally found  in  all  human  societies,  throughout 
the  history  of  the  churches,  would  require  a 
separate  chapter.     It  is  not  a  late  growth  in 
religion,    nor    of    necessity    a    sign    of    high 
development.     And   here    again   the   original 
psychological   motive   is   not   a  spirit  of  self- 
mortification,    but   the   beUef  that  the  chaste 
body  is  the  purer  abode  for  the  Divine  Spirit, 
and  the  mental  experience  that  such  self-abne- 
gation usually  engenders  a  stronger  conscious- 
ness of  religious  power.     There  are  signs  that 
the  idea  is  losing  its  hold  on  the  modern  con- 
sciousness, but  we  see  the  deep  impress  it  has 
made  upon  some  of  the  ideas  and  dogmas  of 
our  religion.     The  institution  of  a  sacerdotal 
rule  of  celibacy  corresponds  to  the  view  pre- 
valent  in    any   given   society  of  the  priestly 
function;   it   is   likely   to   be   enforced   when 
the   priest   is    invested   with  a  specially   pro- 
phetic  and   mystic  character,  and  is  required 
to  mediate  between  the  society  and  God  by 
means     of    frequent    communion    with     the 


156    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

divinity :    it  is  rare  when  the  civic  and  semi- 
secular  view  of  the  sacerdotal  office  prevails, 
rare  therefore  among  the  Northern  Aryans  and 
in  the  pre-Christian  Greek  and  Roman  states, 
although  the  Hellenic  ritual  generally  required 
virginity,  or  at  least  a  prolonged  chastity,  in 
the  prophetess  and  occasionally  in  the  ordinary 
priest.     It  was  common  in  the  ecstatic  religions 
of  Anatolia,  and  in  the  worship  of  Cybele  was 
pushed   to   an   unnatural   extreme.     It  is  in- 
teresting again  to  trace  the  association  between 
the  Phrygian- Christian  heresy  of  Montanism 
and  the  older  Phrygian  paganism  ;  and  we  have 
noted  that  Montanus,  its  founder,  the  champion 
of  celibacy,  is  reported  to  have  been   in   his 
unconverted  days  a  priest  of  Cybele. 

Again,  the  baptismal  rite  is  a  form  of  purifi- 
cation of  world-wide  prevalence,  as  has  been 
already  intimated.  The  washing  of  the  new- 
born has  been  generally  interpreted  as  a 
purgation  of  dangerous  and  evil  influence 
among  the  lower  as  well  as  the  higher  races. 
An    interesting    form    of   such    lustration   is 


The   Ritual  of  Purification     157 

recorded  of  the  old  Aztec  home-life:  the 
midwife  washed  the  infant  with  the  prayer, 
"May  this  water  purify  and  whiten  thy  heart : 
may  it  wash  away  all  that  is  evil."^  The  adult, 
before  initiation  into  any  mystic  society,  usually 
needed  elaborate  purification  ;  and  this  often 
took  the  form  of  baptism  with  water  and 
occasionally  with  blood  :  and  in  certain  of  the 
Mediterranean  religions  the  lustration  was  not 
merely  regarded  as  a  washing  away  of  the 
old  sin,  but  as  a  spiritual  rebirth.^  In  the 
Isis  rites  the  baptism  with  water  was  supposed 
to  raise  the  mortal  to  the  divinity:  in  the 
description  of  the  baptismal  purification  of 
Setis  I.  the  words  occur :  "  I  have  purified  thee 
with  life  and  power,  so  as  to  make  thee  young, 
like  thy  father  Ra."  And  the  gods  themselves 
were  believed  to  be  reborn  through  the 
sprinkling  of  lustral  water  over  their  images.^ 
We   discover   the  same  theories  held  by  the 


1  Sahagun^  Jourdanet^  pp.  xxxix.  and  455. 

2  Vide  supra,  p.  57. 

2  Vide  Archiv  fur  Religionswissenschaft,  1904,  pp.  401-409. 


158     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

early  Church  concerning  the  Christian  rite : 
the  font  washes  away  the  taint  of  the  flesh, 
while  at  the  same  time  the  divine  potency 
of  the  water  revivifies  and  recreates  the 
catechumen,  who  dies  to  the  old  life  and  is 
born  again  ;  so  that  the  font,  which  itself  was 
exorcised  and  purified  in  the  early  period,  was 
in  some  sense  the  womb  of  spiritual  life,  and 
the  rite  is  both  an  exorcism  and  a  communion. 
Very  soon  in  the  history  of  the  Church  it  came 
to  be  regarded  as  of  such  serious  and  critical 
significance  that  the  catechumen  must  prepare 
himself  for  it  by  prior  purifications  and  exor- 
cisms :  such  ceremonies  as  the  breathing  on  his 
forehead  by  the  priest,  the  sacramental  partak- 
ing of  the  salt,  the  anointing  with  oil,  together 
with  the  utterance  of  a  prayer  that  "the 
enemy  might  be  put  to  flight,"  have  an 
obvious  cathartic  significance.^ 

We  must  also  regard  confession  as   a  kind 
of  purification ;   for    the   "  speaking   out "   of 

1  Duchesne,  Origines  du  culte  Chretien,  transl.  by  M'Cliire, 
p.  296. 


The   Ritual  of  Purification     159 

sin  would  be  regarded  as  a  real  purgation 
and  deliverance  at  that  period  of  thought 
when  words  might  be  viewed  as  things,  or 
at  least  as  controlling  things.  This  was  its 
meaning  in  the  preliminary  ritual  of  the 
Samothracian  Mysteries,  in  the  Mexican 
religion^  where  it  was  associated  with  purifi- 
cation and  the  concept  of  rebirth,  and  finally 
in  the  early  Christian  Church,  where  it  was 
specially  imposed  upon  the  priest  before  the 
Easter  communion  as  part  of  the  purificatory 
preparation.^  An  interesting  formula  of 
confession  is  found  among  the  Babylonian 
liturgical  tablets :  the  penitent  prays  to  the 
god  and  the  goddess — "  Let  the  seven  winds 
carry  away  my  sighs  ...  let  the  bird  bear 
my  wickedness  to  the  heavens :  let  the  fish 
carry  off  my  misery,  let  the  river  sweep  it 
away.  Let  the  beast  of  the  field  take  it 
from  me.  Let  the  waters  of  the  river  wash 
me  clean."     Here  the  purificatory  confessional 


1  Sahagun^  op.  cit.,  pp.  340-341. 

2  Fide  Herzog,  Real-Encyclop.,  s.v.  Beichte. 


i6o    The   Evolution   of  Religion 

works  partly  by  prayer  to  the  high  god, 
partly  by  the  old  idea  of  the  magic  trans- 
ference of  sin  into  an  alien  substance/ 

These  are  examples  of  practices  in  the 
advanced  religions  aiming  at  the  purging  of 
internal  and  spiritual  sin.  But  the  older 
and  more  materialistic  view  of  impurity  as 
a  physical  taint  or  as  the  miasma  of  an  evil 
spirit,  has  not  wholly  faded  even  from  historic 
Christianity :  the  ceremony  of  the  churching 
of  women,  though  transformed  into  a  thanks- 
giving service,  has  descended  from  an  old 
cathartic  ritual  that  purged  away  the  danger- 
ous pollution  of  child-birth :  and  the  consecra- 
tion of  churches  was  originally  merely  a 
special  application  of  the  old-world  practice 
of  purifying  the  house  against  demons,  as 
we  may  see  from  the  legendary  example 
given  in  the  apocryphal  "  Acts  of  St 
Thomas."^ 

1  King,  Babylonian  Religion,  p.  212. 

2  Vide  Von  der  Goltz,  Das  Gehet,  p.  297  :  Cabrol,  Priere 
Antique,  p.  3l6:  the  aspersion  with  holy  water  in  the 
present    Roman    ritual    does    not    seem    to    have    been 


The  Ritual  of  Purification     i6i 

The  facts  which  I  have  collected  and  exposed, 
incomplete  as  the  statement  is,  may  justify 
what  was  said  at  the  outset  of  the  inquiry, 
that  the  aboriginal  idea  of  purity  has  struck 
deep  roots  in  the  soil  on  which  much  of  our 
ethical  thought  and  feeling,  many  of  our 
legal  and  religious  institutions,  have  grown 
and  developed.  The  concept,  owing  perhaps 
to  its  immemorial  continuity  of  life  and  deep 
primeval  instinctiveness,  if  the  word  may 
pass,  is  liable  to  fantastic  exaggerations.  It 
has  sometimes  proved  itself  an  insurmountable 
barrier  to  moral  and  legal  progress.  When 
it  has  crystaUised  into  a  hard  "pharisaic" 
form,  it  has  arrested  and  imprisoned  the  life 
of  a  hitherto  progressive  people.  On  the 
other  hand,  though  its  innate  quality,  so  to 
speak,  is  never  secular-utilitarian,  its  contri- 
butions to  our  civilisation  have  been,  as  we 
have  seen,  of  inestimable  service.  It  has 
engendered    the    modern    horror    of    murder 

obligatory  in   the    early  period :    vide   Duchesne,    Origines, 
p.  404,  Engl,  transl. 


i62     The  Evolution   of  Religion 

and  bloodshed,  and  the  ideal  of  the  chaste 
life :  we  owe  to  it  in  great  degree  the 
delicate  sensitiveness  of  spiritually  gifted 
characters.  For  good  and  for  evil,  it  has 
been  an  instinctive  religious  force  more 
potent  than  any  other  of  these  in  the  mental 
evolution  of  man. 


LECTURE  IV 

THE  EVOLUTION  OF  PRAYER  FROM 
LOWER  TO  HIGHER  FORMS 

There  is  no  part  of  the  religious  service  of 
mankind  that  so  clearly  reveals  the  various 
views  of  the  divine  nature  held  by  the  different 
races  at  the  different  stages  of  their  develop- 
ment as  the  formulae  of  prayer,  or  reflects  so 
vividly  the  material  and  psychologic  history  of 
man.  The  historic  material  at  our  disposal  is 
unfortunately  modern,  not  reaching  back,  that 
is  to  say,  to  a  period  earlier  than  some  four 
thousand  years  before  Christ ;  but  this  can 
be  supplemented,  as  usually  happens,  by  the 
evidence  gathered  from  the  lower  societies,  as 
well  as  by  the  observation  of  practices  that 
frequently  accompany  and  are  very  closely 
blended  with  prayer  even  in  the  higher  reli- 

163 


164    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

gions,  and  that  we  may  with  confidence  beUeve 
to  have  descended  from  an  immemorial  anti- 
quity. The  question  as  to  the  origin  of  prayer 
is  one  of  great  difficulty  and  of  the  deepest 
significance  for  the  history  and  philosophy  of 
religion ;  for  it  inevitably  involves  the  questions 
concerning  the  origin  of  the  belief  in  a  personal 
divinity,  concerning  the  relation  of  magic  to 
religion,  of  the  spell-ritual  which  commands 
or  constrains  to  a  prayer-ritual  of  humiliation 
and  entreaty.  Even  if  I  had  an  original  and 
matured  judgment  to  put  before  you  on  ques- 
tions of  such  importance,  a  single  lecture  would 
be  a  very  inadequate  space  for  its  exposition.^ 
Therefore,  though  I  may  indicate,  I  will  not 
attempt  in  this  lecture  to  decide  on,  the  ques- 
tion of  origin.  I  will  content  myself  with 
arranging  the  phenomena  according  as  they 
appear  from  our  point  of  view  to  belong  to  a 
lower  stratum  of  religion  or  a  higher ;  such  an 

1  An  interesting  and  original  contribution  to  the  solu- 
tion of  the  question  will  be  found  in  a  recent  paper  by 
Mr  R.  Marett  in  Folk-Lore,  1904.,  "  From  Spell  to  Prayer." 


The   Evolution   of  Prayer     165 

arrangement  begs  no  question,  and  agrees  with 
our  experience  that  in  all  religions,  whether 
savage  or  civilised,  lower  and  higher  elements 
are  able  to  coexist.  I  will  first  give  a  general 
sketch  of  the  facts,  with  some  interpretation  of 
them,  and  will  follow  this  with  an  illustrative 
selection  of  the  prayers  of  primitive  and 
advanced  communities. 

According  to  the  modern  definition  of 
prayer,  man  addresses  uttered  or  inaudible 
speech  to  a  divine  power  conceived  as  Spirit  ^ 
or  God,  but  always  as  personal,  in  order  to 
obtain  material,  moral,  or  spiritual  blessings: 
that  part  of  the  address  that  contains  the 
actual  prayer  will  be  often  accompanied  by 
words  of  homage,  adoration,  confession  of 
sin,  expressions  of  doctrinal  faith,  statements 
concerning  the  beneficent  operations  of  the 
divinity  in  time  past,  self-assuring  utterances 
of  confidence  in  divine  protection  or  the  divine 
promise.  Though  the  formulas  contain  much 
positive  statement  and  are  by  no  means  con- 
fined to  the  optative  mood,  the  attitude  of  the 


1 66    The  Evolution   of  Religion 

supplicator  is  always  reverential  and  self-abased ; 
modern  religion  reprobates  any  idea  of  com- 
pelling the  divinity  ;  only  it  generally  seals  its 
petitions  with  the  mystic  signature  of  a  power- 
ful name.  If  this  may  pass  as  a  fairly  com- 
prehensive and  adequate  account  of  modern  or 
advanced  prayer,  it  will  still  be  found  to  con- 
tain elements  that  may  descend  from  a  very 
ancient  mould  of  religious  thought  not  easy 
to  reconcile  with  our  higher  religious  con- 
sciousness ;  and  it  is  no  adequate  account  of 
the  various  modes  which  less  advanced  socie- 
ties have  used  and  are  still  using  to  express 
their  desires  to  the  supernatural  power.  It 
has  indeed  been  recently  asserted,  with  some 
plausibility,^  that  no  savage  community  yet 
explored  lacks  the  conception  of  a  high 
god  making  for  righteousness ;  and  cer- 
tainly many  of  the  lower  races  have  spon- 
taneously developed  genuine  prayer  in  the 
modern  sense.  Still  it  is  sometimes  reported 
by   scientific   observers    that   some   backward 

1   Fide  A.  Lang,  The  Making  of  Religion. 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer     167 

peoples  do  not  pray  at  all ;  ^  and  it  appears 
not  to  be  uncommon  for  the  savage  to 
regard  his  high  god  as  too  remote  to  be 
addressed  for  any  practical  purpose. 

But  the  savage,  though  he  may  pray  as  we 
do,  has  other  ways  of  addressing  himself  to  the 
unseen  personal  agencies  that  he  believes  to 
surround    him ;    and   these   are   the  ways   of 
magic  and   the  magic-spell.     Having  learned 
from  human  experience  that  he  can  project  his 
will-power  by  an  occult  process  so  as  to  subdue 
the  mind  of  his  fellow-man,    he  experiments 
with  this  method  upon   the   world  of  nature 
and  spirits  :  he  deals  with  ghosts  chiefly  in  this 
way,  though  he  may  pray  to  them  also ;  and 
he  has  no  reluctance  in  applying  his  magic  even 
to  the  higher  divinities.     As  magic-worker  he 
stands  on  a  different  footing  altogether  from 
the     petitioner:     his     attitude    towards    the 
supernatural  power  is  self-confident  and   im- 
perious, his  speech  is  no  prayer   but   a  com- 
mand.    He  may  project  his  will  by  dumb  show, 

1  Vide  Anthropolog.  Journ.,  1904^,  p.  l65. 


1 68     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

by  action  suggestive  of  his  desire :  but  in  most 
cases  he  will  probably  prefer  to  accompany 
it  with  potent  speech,  so  as  to  drive  his  will 
home  to  the  mark,  so  to  speak:  and  the 
psychology  of  such  magic  practices  has  been 
ably  investigated  by  recent  writers.  The 
technical  name  for  such  exercise  of  will  upon 
another  person  is  suggestion ;  a  modern 
application  of  it  sometimes  appears  in  the 
extreme  form  that  we  call  mesmerism  or 
hypnotism.  For  the  successful  appUcation  of 
the  charm,  it  is  often  an  essential  condition 
that  one  should  possess  oneself  of  the  name 
of  the  person  against  whom  it  is  directed,  and 
at  times  of  his  picture  or  effigy,  for  both 
the  name  and  the  picture  are  regarded  as 
vital  parts  of  the  whole  individuality  that  one 
seeks  to  control.  The  same  ideas  transferred 
into  the  world  of  supernatural  personalities 
account  for  the  potency  and  deep  significance 
that  attaches  to  the  divine  name,  and  for  the 
prominence  of  the  picture  and  the  effigy  in 
the  religious  magic.     But  the  savage  has  also 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer     169 

learned  from  experience  that  he  can  work  upon 
his  fellows  by  entreaty,  flattery,  soothing  and 
endearing  address :  and  it  was  obviously 
natural  for  him  to  approach  the  divine  powers 
in  the  same  fashion,  and  to  use  humble  and 
prayerful  petitions.  Nor  does  there  seem 
any  reason  why  he  should  not  employ  the 
methods  of  magic  and  prayer  simultaneously 
or  in  close  conjunction  on  the  same  occasion. 
We  may  often  in  fact  be  in  doubt  whether  to 
interpret  a  certain  primitive  religious  act  from 
one  point  of  view  or  the  other.  Thus  we  are 
told  that  when  the  Khonds  of  Orissa  are 
about  to  enter  on  a  campaign,  "  the  priest  cuts 
a  branch  and  dresses  it  and  arms  it,  so  as  to 
personate  one  of  the  foe :  thereupon  it  is 
thrown  down  at  the  shrine  of  the  war-god  "  :  ^ 
This  formal  appeal  to  the  god  is  speechless, 
and  may  be  thought  to  be  a  speechless  prayer  ; 
but  it  is  of  the  same  colour  as  a  multifarious 
mass  of  practices  which  are  mimetic  and  which 
are  intended  to  work  by  means  of  suggestion. 

1  R.  Marettj  ojj.  cit.,  p.  145. 


170    The   Evolution  of  Religion 

A    singular    ritual    is    recorded    of  the    rain 
societies    of   North    America:^    emblems    or 
picture-writing      representing     clouds,     with 
vertical  drops  symbolising  rain,  are  placed  on 
an  altar,  ears  of  maize  are  placed  by  the  side 
of  them  with  other  objects,  and  the  corn-ears 
are  sprinkled  with  water,  while  at  the  same 
time  prayers  are  proffered  to  the  ghosts  that 
control  the   rain-supply.     We  would  wish  to 
know  what  the  manner  of  the  praying  is  ;  but 
it   seems   clear  that  we  here  have  the  ritual 
of  prayer   combined   with    magic-suggestion, 
which  consists  in  pretending  to  do  the  thing 
which  it  is  desired  to  bring  about.     Again,  the 
primitive  formulae   devised  to   drive   out   the 
demons  of  disease  and  poverty  are  usually  im- 
perious commands  and  not  prayers  :  such  as  the 
Chinese  "  Let  the  devil  of  poverty  depart  "  ;  ^ 
the  Greek,  "  Go  out,  hunger," '  and  "  To  the 
door,  you  ghosts."^ 

1  Man,  1902,  p.  104. 

2  Frazer,  Golde?i  Bough  <2)  iii.  83.  ^  Plutarch,  693  F. 
*  At     the    Anthesteria,     Photius,     s.v,     Ovpa^€     ktjocs  : 

Hesych.,  s.v. 


The   Evolution  of  Prayer     171 


But  when,  as  in  Euro,  the  bidding  takes  such 
a  form  as  "  Grandfather  small-pox,  go  away,"  ^ 
the  reverential  and  soothing  address  allows 
us  to  approximate  this  to  prayer,  for  in  the 
liturgies  of  the  earlier  as  well  as  the  advanced 
religions  the  divinity  is  commonly  addressed 
in  terms  of  kinship.  We  shall  note  instances 
of  real  prayers  proffered  by  the  uncultured 
races  to  a  high  god,  yet  retaining  something 
of  the  magic  character  and  tone  :  we  detect  it 
in  the  mystic  employment  of  the  name,  in  the 
reiteration  of  the  same  short  phrase,  in  the 
droning  sing-song  in  which,  according  to 
Professor  Tylor,^  savage  prayers  are  usually 
intoned,  the  tone  of  a  mesmeric  incantation. 
But  gradually,  as  the  concept  of  divinity  ^ 
deepens  in  the  progressive  race,  and  the  mind 
becomes  penetrated  with  the  consciousness  of 
the  littleness  of  man  and  of  the  incomparable 
greatness  of  God,  the  worshipper  tends  to 
become    the    humble    petitioner    and   prayer 

1  Frazer,  op.  cit.,  iii.  98  :  vide  Marett,  op.  cit.,  p.  l63. 

2  Primitive  Culture,  vol.  ii.  (concluding  chapter). 


172    The  Evolution   of  Religion 

comes  to  predominate  over  spell.  And  it 
has  happened  in  the  legislation  of  the  higher 
religions  that  magic  at  last  becomes  "  suspect " 
and  tabooed :  yet  the  most  austere  and 
purified  religion  often  unconsciously  retains 
certain  elements  of  spell-ritual,  and  even 
legitimatises  the  spell  by  virtue  of  the  distinc- 
tion between  white  magic  and  black.  The  dis- 
tinction is  morphologically  unsound,  and  arises 
generally  from  eoc-parte  prejudice.  We  do 
not  find,  in  fact,  if  we  broadly  compare  the 
phenomena  of  all  religions,  that  cleavage  and 
irreconcilable  antagonism  between  magic  and 
religion  which  has  often  been  supposed.  Even 
in  religions  that  we  must  class  as  high,  the 
deity  himself  is  often  imagined  to  work  by 
means  of  magic,  and  the  Christian  Church 
itself  has  given  its  patronage  and  consecra- 
tion to  practices  of  magical  significance,  such 
as  the  ordeal,  purification,  certain  forms  of 
healing,  exorcisms  of  evil  spirits  :  all  these  will 
be  accompanied  by  prayers  to  God,  but  the 
prayers  are  so  impregnated  with  the  ideas  of 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer     173 

animistic  magic  that  we  can  hardly  regard 
them  as  pure  forms.  Nevertheless,  though  the 
lower  elements  are  so  difficult  to  eradicate, 
yet  the  experience  of  some  few  of  the  higher 
communities  may  reassure  us  that  as  a  religion 
progresses  in  spirituality  it  can  purge  itself 
more  and  more  thoroughly  of  these,  and  the 
progress  is  from  spell  to  prayer. 

Again,  we  may  compare  the  phenomena 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  progress  in 
aspiration.  In  the  primitive  period,  when  the 
struggle  is  to  live  at  all  rather  than  to  live 
well,  the  objects  of  prayer  must  be  material 
blessings,  and  these  are  still  prominent  in  the 
liturgies  of  the  civilised  societies.  There  is  a 
sameness  in  all  these,  and  the  chief  distinction 
to  note  is  between  the  prayers  that  look  to  the 
individual  alone  and  those  that  look  to  the 
good  of  the  community.  A  higher  stage  is 
reached  when  moral  and  spiritual  qualities 
become  the  object  of  prayer  ;  and  when  this 
is  attained,  the  principle  of  prayer  is  hkely 
to  become  more  and  more  spiritual,  and  the 


174    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

petitioner  more  and  more  diffident  in  the 
expression  of  his  material  wants,  and  with  a 
growing  consciousness  that  the  Deity  knows 
best  what  is  good  for  man,  may  rise  to  the 
height  of  the  formula,  "  Thy  will  be  done."  It 
is  interesting  to  note  in  how  many  races  some 
such  utterance  has  been  heard ;  and  at  times 
men  may  have  been  helped  to  it  by  the 
consciousness  which  scientific  advance  had 
awakened,  that  the  laws  of  the  material 
universe  cannot  be  capriciously  altered  to  suit 
the  temporary  needs  of  the  individual :  a 
formula  of  acquiescence  appears  then  to  be  the 
deepest  and  truest  prayer.  Finally,  in  the 
evolution  of  prayer  we  may  consider  that  the 
consummation  is  marked  by  the  theory, 
maintained  by  later  Greek  philosophy  and 
early  Christian  fathers  alike,  that  the  true 
intention  of  prayer  is  not  the  mere  petition  for 
some  special  blessing,  but  rather  the  com- 
munion with  God,  to  whom  it  is  a  spiritual 
approach.  Here  as  often  elsewhere,  the 
highest  spiritual   product   of  human   thought 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer     175 

reveals  its  affinity  with  some  dimly  remote 
primeval  concept ;  for  much  of  the  spell-ritual 
at  which  we  have  been  glancing  implies  an 
idea  of  such  communion,  the  human  agent 
endeavouring  to  charge  himself  with  a  potency 
drawn  from  a  quasi-divine  source. 

It  remains  now  to  take  concrete  examples 
from  the  record  of  prayer  illustrative  of  these 
phases  of  development.  Looking  first  at  the 
savage  races,  we  have  already  observed  that 
some  of  their  formulae  seem  to  belong  to  the 
borderland  between  spell  and  prayer.  When 
the  New  Caledonian  says  over  the  fire  that  he 
kindles  to  increase  the  heat  of  the  sun,  "  Sun, 
I  do  this  that  you  may  be  burning  hot,"  it  is 
obviously  not  a  prayer  that  he  utters  to  the 
sun-god  but  a  formula  expressing  the  sugges- 
tion of  his  magic.^  And  when  the  Karens  of 
Burma  at  the  threshing  of  the  rice  call  out  to 
the  corn-mother,  "  Shake  thyself,  grandmother, 
shake  thyself  Let  the  paddy  ascend  till  it 
equals  a  hill,  equals  a  mountain ;  shake  thy- 

1  Marett,  op.  cit.,  p.  152. 


176    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

self,  grandmother,  shake  thyself,"^  we  have 
surely  a  command  rather  than  a  pure  prayer ; 
for  primitive  vegetation  -  ritual  works  by 
compulsion  rather  than  entreaty.  On  the 
other  hand,  we  have  record  of  a  genuine 
Karen  prayer  addressed  to  "  the  God  of  heaven 
and  earth,  God  of  the  mountains  and  hills,"  on 
the  occasion  when  a  sin  of  unchastity  was 
supposed  to  have  sterilised  the  earth :  ''Do 
not  be  angry  with  me,  do  not  hate  me,  but 
have  mercy  on  me  and  compassionate  me. 
.  .  .  Now  I  repair  the  mountains,  now  1 
heal  the  hills.  .  .  .  Make  thy  paddy  fruitful, 
thy  rice  abundant.  ...  If  we  cultivate  but 
little,  still  grant  that  we  may  obtain  a  little." 
But  the  prayer  is  accompanied  with  rites  that 
are  purely  magical  and  aiming  at  the  restora- 
tion of  the  earth.^ 

The  buffalo  clan  among  the  Sioux  Indians 
decorate  themselves  with  emblems  of  their 
totem  animal  before   going   on  the  war-path, 

1  Tylor,  op.  cit,  ii.  p.  334. 

2  Frazer,  Golden  Boiighp  vol.  ii.  p.  212. 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer     177 

and  express  the  purpose  of  the  dressing  with  a 
sententious  phrase:  "My  Httle  grandfather 
is  always  dangerous  when  he  makes  an 
attempt."^  Such  an  utterance,  considered 
formally,  is  not  a  prayer  but  a  statement 
about  the  power  of  the  buffalo,  "  the  little 
grandfather  " ;  for  it  is  an  article  of  faith  in 
the  magic  creed  that  the  supernatural  force, 
which  the  spell  aims  at  setting  in  operation, 
can  be  made  to  work  by  definite  statements 
that  it  is  working;  these  are  suggestive 
assurances  that  increase  one's  own  confidence ; 
and  the  Sioux  formula  is  of  such  a  nature ; 
only  the  coaxing  and  endearing  phrase  of 
kinship  seems  to  imply  a  half  entreaty  as  well. 
We  discern  more  clearly  the  rudiments  of  a 
prayer  in  the  words  addressed  by  the  Santee 
Indians  to  the  buffalo  when  they  have  offered 
him  a  feast :  "  Grandfather,  venerable  man, 
thy  children  have  made  this  feast  for  you : 
may  the  food  thus  taken  cause  them  to  live 

1  Annual  Report  of  Smithsonian  Institute,  "  Study  of  Sioux 
Cults,  by  Dorsey/'  1899-1900,  p.  381,  etc 

12 


178     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

and  bring  them  good  fortune."  ^  The  account 
of  the  Sioux  reUgion  preserves  a  quaint  form  of 
words  which  are  used  for  the  riddance  of  the 
ghost,  to  despatch  the  soul  of  the  deceased  to 
the  home  of  the  dead  :  "  You  are  going  to  the 
animals,  you  are  going  to  your  ancestors,  you 
came  hither  from  the  animals  and  you  are 
going  back  thither:  do  not  face  this  way 
again:  when  you  go,  continue  walking."^ 
The  tone  of  the  words  is  kind  and  considerate, 
but  authoritative  rather  than  supplicatory, 
and  unlike  the  formula  which  the  same 
Indians  are  reported  to  use  when  praying  to 
their  ancestors  for  good  weather  or  good 
hunting,  "  Spirits  of  the  dead,  have  mercy  on 
us."^  Certain  prayers  used  habitually  by  the 
Todas  of  the  Nalgiri  hills  for  the  thriving  of 
the  dairy  and  the  buffalo  herd  have  recently 
been  published,^  and   as   the  formulas  are  all 

^  Peahody  Museum  Reports,  vol.  iii.  p.  276^  etc. 

2  Annual  Report  Smithsoniaji  Institute,  1899-1900,  pp.  420- 
421. 

3  Tylor,  op.  cit.,  ii.  p.  331. 

4  Folk-Lore,  1904,  p.  I68  :   Toda  Prayer,  W.  H.  R.  Rivers. 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer     179 

in  the  optative  mood — "May  it  be  well  for 
the  buffaloes,  may  there  be  no  destroyer, 
etc.,"  and  there  is  an  appeal  to  divine 
personages  or  powers — "for  the  sake  of  such 
or  such  a  god  may  this  happen" — we  may 
class  them  as  prayers ;  but  the  appeal  is  very 
faint  and  the  formulae  seem  to  be  used  as 
if  they  possessed  a  self-dependent  efficacy. 
More  interesting  and  fervent  is  the  address 
to  the  sun,  proffered  by  a  solitary  hunter  of 
the  half-christianised  Kekchi  tribe  of  Indians  :  ^ 
his  object  is  to  secure  game  and  food  in  the 
wilderness  both  for  himself  and  as  an  oblation 
to  the  god;  but  in  the  very  long  and  im- 
passioned utterance,  with  its  many  repetitions, 
there  is  very  Uttle  direct  entreaty :  the  Indian 
contents  himself  with  definite  and  reassuring 
statements  concerning  the  omnipresence  of  the 
deity  and  the  ease  with  which  the  latter  can 
execute  his  will :  "  It  will  give  you  no  trouble 
to  give  me  all  kind  of  game  " ;  and  a  moving 

1  Published  by  Carl  Sapper  in  Ndrdliches  Mittel-Amerika, 
vide  Archiv  jur  vergl.  Relig.  IVisi:,  1904,  p.  468. 


i8o    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

appeal  is  made  on  the  ground  of  kinship: 
"Thou  art  my  father:  who  is  my  mother, 
who  is  my  father  ?     Only  thou,  O  God." 

We  may  regard  these  utterances  of  the 
hunter  not  indeed  as  spells,  for  his  attitude 
is  most  reverent  and  loving,  but  as  potent 
statement  effecting  the  purpose  of  prayer. 
Nor  need  we  see  Christian  influence  in  the 
striking  phrase  last  quoted,  though  of  course 
this  is  possible  ;  such  endearing  address 
is  common  both  in  the  lower  and  higher 
liturgies :  the  Egyptian  appealed  to  I  sis  in 
similar  terms ^ — "Oh  my  father,  my  brother, 
my  mother  Isis,"  the  Babylonian  addressed  Bel 
as  father  and  mother,^  and  a  Vedic  hymn  con- 
tains the  phrase,  "Thou,  oh  Agni,  art  our 
father,  we  are  thy  kinsmen."^  Such  appeals, 
suggested  by   the   affection  between  kinsmen 

1  Budge,  Egyj)tian  Magic,  p.  49- 

2  Jastrow,  Religion  Bahyloniens  Assyriens,  p.  490  :  cf. 
the  formula  in  the  prayer  of  one  of  the  early  kings  to 
the  goddess  Ga-tum-dug :  "  I  have  no  mother — Thou 
art  my  mother :  I  have  no  father — Thou  art  my  father/' 
Jastrow,  p.  395. 

3  Sacred  Books,  vol.  xlvi.  p.  23. 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer     i8i 

and  the  idea  of  the  kmship  of  man  with  God, 
belong  to  the  alphabet  of  pure  prayer. 

Of  still  more  value  for  the  light  it  throws  on 
the  attitude  of  the  Indian's  mind  to  the  powers 
of  the  unseen  world,  is  the  so-called  prayer  of 
a  Navajo  Shaman  belonging  to  the  district  of 
Arizona,  recently  published  in  the  American 
Anthropologist','^  and  to  understand  it  the 
circumstances  must  be  briefly  stated.  The 
Shaman  had  been  telling  the  American  in- 
quirer the  story  of  his  tribe's  descent  through 
the  lower  world  and  their  re-emergence :  after 
the  narrative  he  fears  that  speaking  about  the 
lower  regions  may  have  caused  his  own  spirit- 
ual or  astral  part  to  have  left  his  body  and 
departed  thither  ;  and  he  therefore  proceeds 
to  recite  a  long  so-called  prayer  intended  to 
deliver  his  soul  from  the  witchcraft  that  may 
be  detaining  it  below.  We  should  not  strictly 
call  it  a  prayer  at  all,  but  a  narrative  in  the 
indicative  mood  stating  that  the  war-gods  of 
the  tribe  are  actually  doing  what  he  specially 
1  Vol.  1. 


i82     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

wants  them  to  do,  namely,  to  go  down  and 
rescue  his  soul  from  the  woman-chieftain,  "  the 
underground  witch."  Every  step  of  their 
way  there  and  back  is  carefully  recounted 
several  times  over,  so  that  they  cannot  go 
wrong ;  and  when  they  are  supposed  to  have 
brought  back  his  soul,  the  recital  ends  with  the 
joyful  refrain,  "  The  world  before  me  is  restored 
in  beauty  :  my  voice  is  restored  in  beauty," 
each  phrase  repeated  five  times.  It  is  really 
a  spell-narrative  about  the  gods,  having  the 
same  effect  as  prayer,  and  is  a  twofold  illus- 
tration of  the  primitive  idea  that  talking 
about  a  thing  makes  it  happen ;  an  idea  not 
wholly  extinct  among  ourselves,  and  possibly 
underlying  some  of  the  liturgies  of  higher 
religions. 

For  the  rest,  savages  often  pray  very  much 
as  the  civilised  man,  and  accompany  some  of 
their  purifications  and  medicine-magic  with 
real  prayers  to  higher  gods  to  give  them 
efficacy:  for  instance,  the  African  doctor 
administering    the    medicine    shown   him   by 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer     183 

the  fetich  holds  it  first  up  to  heaven  and 
prays,  "Father  Heaven,  bless  this  medicine 
that  I  now  give."^  But  I  have  not  been  able 
to  find  any  example  of  a  savage  prayer  for 
moral  or  spiritual  blessings.  An  interesting 
feature  is,  however,  observable  in  a  verbose  and 
very  exacting  prayer  made  by  the  Khonds  of 
Orissa  to  the  earth-goddess ;  after  particular- 
ising very  carefully  their  material  wants,  they 
conclude  with  the  words,  "  We  are  ignorant  of 
what  it  is  good  to  ask  for.  You  know  what  is 
good  for  us,  give  it  us."^  This  appears  to  be 
a  unique  savage  version  of  the  great  phrase, 
"Thy  will  be  done." 

Turning  now  to  the  liturgies  of  the  more 
advanced  peoples,^  we  may  note  briefly  at  the 

1  Tylor,  Prim.  Cult.,  ii.  p.  333. 

2  Tyloi'j  op.  cit.,  ii.  p.  SS5. 

3  I  have  only  space  to  make  a  summary  reference  here 
to  the  very  noteworthy  collection  of  Peruvian  prayers  pre- 
served by  De  Molina,  Fables  and  Rites  of  the  Yncas,  p.  28, 
etc.,  38,  5Q  :  they  have  all  the  character  of  pure  prayer, 
and  occasionally  reach  a  high  spiritual  level :  the  only 
appearance  of  magic  is  in  the  sacrifice  that  accompanies  ^ 
the  singular  petition  '^  that  the  Creator  and  the  sun  may 
remain  ever  young." 


184    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

outset  one  feature  that  is  found  in  most  of 
them  if  not  common  to  all ;  namely,  the  idea 
that  the  prayer  gains  potency  from  the  solemn 
utterance  of  the  true  divine  name.  The 
phenomenon  has  been  examined  by  recent 
writers  on  comparative  religion,  especially  by 
Giesebrecht  in  his  treatise  on  Die  Alt-testa- 
mentliche  Schdtzung  des  Gottesnamens}  In 
primitive  psychology,  the  name  is  part  of 
the  personahty,  and  the  soul  or  power  of  the 
individual  inheres  in  it :  therefore  he  who  has 
the  name  of  the  person,  whether  human, 
superhuman,  or  divine,  can  exercise  a  certain 
control  over  him  by  means  of  its  magical 
application.  Thus  in  the  appeal  to  the  god 
Ukko  in  the  Kalevala,  "  Ukko,  oh  thou  god 
in  heaven,  Ukko  come,  we  call  upon  thee, 
Ukko  come,  we  need  thee  sorely,"  there  is 
virtue  in  the  threefold  repetition  of  the  name, 
and  the  passage  is  part  of  an  address  which 
is    called    "magic    words."      Evidence    from 

1  Vide  also  Andrian  in  Deutsch.  Gesellsch.  AnthropoL,  xxvii., 
1896,  p.  109. 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer     185 

Teutonic  paganism,  so  far  as  I  know,  is 
lacking,  although  the  idea  has  left  its  clear 
imprint  on  the  human  saga.  Its  influence  is 
strongest  and  its  operation  most  interesting 
in  the  liturgies  of  the  Mediterranean  and  of 
India.  In  old  Latium,  it  seems,  the  pontifices 
endeavoured  to  conceal  the  true  names  of  the 
gods,  lest  they  might  be  wrongly  used  by 
unauthorised  persons^  or  lest  the  enemy 
should  get  the  knowledge  of  them  and  there- 
with the  power  to  draw  the  divinities  away. 
We  may  thus  understand  the  often  misinter- 
preted statement  in  Herodotus,  that  the 
Pelasgian  deities  were  nameless ;  and  the 
Greeks  themselves  must  have  been  familiar 
with  the  ritual  precaution  of  keeping  secret 
the  divine  name,  as  we  may  gather  from  the 
phrase  in  the  Euripidean  fragment^  about 
the  enlightened  man  "who  knows  the  silent 
names  of  the  gods " :  it  is  curious  to  find 
exactly  the  same  expression  in  a  Vedic  hymn,^ 

1  Serv.,  jEn.,  2,  351.  2  pj.^  73 1^  Phaethon. 

3  Vedic  Hymns  {Sacred  Books,  etc.)^  pt.  ii.  p.  378. 


1 86    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

in  which  the  sacrificial  post,  or  tree  to  which 
the  sacrifices  were  attached,  is  thus  addressed : 
"Where  thou  knowest,  oh  tree,  the  sacred 
names  of  the  gods,  to  that  place  make  the 
offerings  go."  It  is  possible  that  the  same 
superstition  may  have  been  the  original  cause 
of  the  custom  that  has  sometimes  been  observed 
of  silent  or  inaudible  prayer :  the  formulae 
with  the  divine  name  attached  to  them  being 
of  such  potency  that  they  must  be  concealed. 

The  belief  that  the  name  belongs  to  the 
essence  of  the  personality  explains  the  curious 
formula  in  the  Umbrian  prayer  preserved  in 
the  Tabulae  Iguvinas,  where  the  god  Gra- 
bovius  is  implored  to  be  propitious  to  the 
''  Arx  Fisia "  and  to  "  the  name  of  the  Arx 
Fisia,"  as  if  the  name  of  the  city  was  a  living 
and  independent  entity. 

In  the  Greek  liturgies  we  note  the  anxious 
care  with  which  particular  quahfying  epithets 
were  selected  and  attached  to  the  personal 
name  of  the  divinity,  so  as  to  make  clear 
what   was    the    precise    operation    of    divine 


The   Evolution  of  Prayer     187 

favour  which  the  prayer  aimed  at  evoking. 
This  explains  why  so  many  divinities,  some 
of  whom  were  scarcely  known  outside  a 
narrow  area,  were  invoked  as  TToXvdjvvfjie, 
"  thou  god  of  many  names,"  all  possible  titles 
of  power  being  summed  up  in  one  word. 
Certain  passages  in  the  poets  become  intelli- 
gible only  in  the  light  of  this  idea  :  such  as 
the  well-known  phrase  in  the  chorus  of  the 
Agamemnon  of  ^schylus  :  ^  "  Zeus,  whoso- 
ever the  god  is,  if  this  name  of  Zeus  is  dear 
to  him,  by  this  name  I  now  appeal  to  him." 
The  thought  and  the  words  of  the  Vedic 
poet  are  often  the  same  as  the  Greek:  Agni 
is  TToXvcovvixo^ :  "  Agni,  many  are  the  names 
of  thee  the  Immortal  one  "  ;  and  again,  "  The 
father  adoring  gives  many  names  to  thee,  oh 
Agni,  if  thou  shouldest  take  pleasure  therein."^ 
But  it  is  in  Egypt,  the  land  of  magic,  where 
the  idea  of  the   potency  of  the  divine  name 

11.  160  :  cf.  Plat,  Crat.,  400  E.,  "  It  is  our  custom  in  our 
prayers  to  call  the  gods  by  whatsoever  name  they  most 
rejoice  to  be  called  by." 

2  Vedic  Hymns,  pt.  ii.^  pp.  281,  372. 


1 88    The  Evolution   of  Religion 

assumes  dimensions  that  are  truly  gigantic. 
In  an  early  metaphysical  theory  of  the  origin 
of  things,  which  in  its  harmonious  self-con- 
tradiction reaches  quite  to  the  level  of 
Hegelian  philosophy,  the  universe  is  said  to 
have  come  into  being,  and  the  first  god 
himself  effects  his  own  creation  by  the  utter- 
ance of  his  own  portentous  name :  ^  in  the 
beginning  was  the  name.  It  is  said  of  the 
great  god  Ra  that  "his  names  are  manifold 
and  unknown,  even  the  gods  know  them 
not."  Naturally,  therefore,  the  goddess  Isis 
was  desirous  of  knowing  his  real  name,  and 
having  discovered  it  by  a  ruse,  she  became 
mistress  over  him  and  all  gods.^  In  certain 
Egyptian  papyri  containing  Abraxas  prayers, 
we  find  the  prayer  sometimes  coupled  with 
the  reminder  that  the  petitioner  knows  the 
divine  mystic  name ;  ^  thus  equipped,  the 
prayer  is  more  than  a  mere  humble  entreaty. 

1  Budge^,  op.  cit.,  p.  l6l. 

2  Budge,  op.  cit.,  pp.  137-141. 

3  Vide  examples  quoted  by  Ausfeld,  De  Grcecorum  Pre- 
cationibuSj  p.  519- 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer     189 

Was  it  from  Egypt  that  the  early  IsraeHtes 
derived  the  same  mystic  illusion  concerning 
the  divine  name,  which  to  some  of  the 
scholars  of  the  last  generation  appeared  to 
be  a  faith  peculiar  to  the  chosen  people? 
At  least  we  are  now  enabled,  by  the  recent 
exposition  of  the  facts,  to  understand  the 
inner  force  of  such  prayers  as  the  Psalmist's 
"  Save  me,  oh  God,  by  thy  name  and  judge 
me  by  thy  strength  "  :  ^  of  Jahve's  warning  to 
his  people  in  the  Exodus  to  obey  the  angel 
whom  he  sends  them,  "  Obey  his  voice  .  .  . 
for  my  Name  is  in  him : "  ^  of  the  oath  taken 
by  those  initiated  into  the  Essenian  sect  not 
to  reveal  the  names  of  the  angels :  ^  of  ex- 
pressions in  the  New  Testament  concerning 
the  casting  out  of  devils  and  the  healing  of 
the  sick  in  the  name  of  Jesus :  finally,  of  the 
significant  baptismal  phrase,  "  to  baptize  into 
the  name  of  Christ,"  *  which  reveals  the  name 
as   a  religious  potency  into  which   as   into   a 

1  Ps.  54,  31.  2  c.  23,  V.  21. 

^  Joseph,  De  hell.  Jud.,  2,  8.  ^  Acts  8,  l6  ;   19,  5. 


I  go    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

spiritual  atmosphere  the  adult  catechumen 
or  the  initiated  infant  is  brought.  And  these 
facts  of  old-world  religion  and  religious  logic 
cast  a  new  light  on  the  name-formulas  which 
close  most  of  the  prayers  of  the  Christian 
Church,  and  which  are  words  of  power  to 
speed  the  prayer  home ;  and  though  the 
modern  consciousness  may  often  be  unaware 
of  this  mystic  function  of  theirs,  we  may 
believe  that  it  was  more  clearly  recognised 
in  the  early  days  of  Christianity,  for  in  the 
apocryphal  acts  of  St  John  we  find  a  long 
list  of  mystical  names  and  titles  attached  to 
Christ  giving  to  the  prayer  much  of  the  tone 
of  an  enchantment.^ 

Connected  as  it  seems  with  this  superstition 
about  names  is  the  belief  that,  in  order  to 
gain  complete  power  over  a  human  or  divine 
personality,  it  is  necessary  to  know  their 
origin  and  to  express  what  one  knows  about 
them  in  the  charm :  thus  in  the  Kalevala 
the    young    magician    is    taught    the    origin 

1  Von  der  Goltz,  Das  Gebet,  p.  SbS. 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer     igi 

of  things  in  order  that  he  may  know  the 
proper  enchantment  against  them,  and  a  long 
account  of  the  origin  of  iron,  regarded  as  a 
demoniac  substance,  occurs  in  the  word-magic 
used  to  cure  the  wound  it  inflicted.  Hence 
we  may  account  for  the  descriptive  or,  so  to 
speak,  biographical  element  in  charms  that 
are  on  the  borderland  of  prayer.  The 
exorciser  of  evil  dreams  in  the  Atharva-Veda 
prays  or  sings  thus  :  "  We  know,  oh  sleep,  thy 
birth  ;  thou  art  the  son  of  the  divine  women- 
folk, the  instrument  of  Death.  Thou  art  the 
ender,  thou  art  Death.  Thus  do  we  know 
thee,  oh  sleep :  do  thou,  oh  sleep,  protect  us 
from  evil  dreams."^  And  in  the  worship  of 
Agni  the  belief  is  expressed  that  "  the  prayers 
fill  thee  with  power  and  strengthen  thee," 
and  this  is  at  once  followed  by  an  account 
of  his  nature  and  origin.^  Is  it  then  too 
far-fetched  to  trace  the  survival   of  this  old- 

1  Hymns    of  the  Atharva-Veda   {Sacred  Books,  etc.,  xlii. 
p.  167). 

2  Fedic  H^mns,  pt.  ii.  p.  391. 


1 92     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

world  thought,  rooted  as  it  is  in  the  magic 
of  the  word  and  the  statement,  in  the  promi- 
nence given  to  the  dogmatic  biographical 
statement  in  our  own  liturgy  ?  We  regard 
it  as  a  confession  of  faith :  it  may  also  be 
regarded  as  an  expression  of  the  worshipper's 
knowledge  of  the  divine  personality,  whereby 
he  raises  himself  into  communion  with  it 
and  thus  gains  power  for  his  prayer.^ 

Considering  now  in  a  more  general  survey 
the  liturgies  of  the  nations  that  have  attained 
culture,  we  might  begin  with  our  own  fathers. 
But  so  little  that  touches  the  inner  life  of  their 
pre-Christian  religion  has  been  preserved,  that 
probably  not  much  material  for  our  present  pur- 
pose is  to  be  discovered  from  the  records.  We 
know  that  they  were  given  to  the  employment 
of  the  rune  or  the  spell,  the  rival  or  the  parent 
of  prayer  ;  and  one  of  these,  used  by  Odin  to 
heal  the  sprained  foot  of  Baldur's  foal,  is  per- 

1  Cf.  a  formula  in  an  Egyptian  papyrus  published  by 
Kenyon  (122^  v.  18),  "I  know  thee,  Hermes,  who  thou 
art  and  whence  thou  art  and  what  city  is  the  city  of 
Hermes":  quoted  by  Ausfeld,  op.  cit.  p.  524f,  n.  1. 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer     193 

haps  the  only  surviving  fragment  of  Indo- 
Germanic  poetry.^  Odin  sings,  "  Bone  to 
bone,  blood  to  blood,  limb  to  limb,  as 
though  they  were  glued  together";  in  a 
later  Norwegian,  and  also  in  a  Scottish 
version,  it  is  Christ  who  heals  the  foal  with 
the  same  magic  words,  strengthened  however 
by  the  formula,  "  Heal  in  the  Holy  Ghost's 
name."  And  this  useful  medicine  -  charm 
was  not  forgotten  by  the  Aryan  Indians,  for 
we  find  the  words  in  the  Atharva-Veda,  "  Fit 
together,  hair  with  hair,  fit  together,  skin 
with  skin:  thy  blood,  thy  bone  shall  grow."^ 
Neither  god  nor  ghost  was  needed  to  help 
out  the  force  of  such  incantations.  But  prob- 
ably some  time  before  Christianity  prayer  had 
come  to  prevail  over  spell  in  the  Teutonic 
North,  for  there  are  traces  there  of  a  certain 

1  The  ^^Merseburg  charm/'  old  High  German  tenth- 
century  MS.  :  cf.  R.  Chambers,  Fireside  Stories,  Edinburgh, 
1842.  My  attention  was  called  to  the  great  antiquity  of 
this  Norse  chann  by  Prof.  Napier,  to  whose  kindness  I  owe 
these  references. 

2  Sacred  Books,  xlii.  p.  20. 

13 


194    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

antagonism  growing  between  magic  and 
religion,  which  led  to  the  condemnation  of 
certain  forms  of  magic. ^ 

An  interesting  question  arises  about  a 
prayer  -  charm  used  by  the  early  EngUsh 
against  sterility  of  the  fields  :  "  Hail  be  thou, 
Earth,  Mother  of  Men,  wax  fertile  in  the 
embrace  of  God,  fulfilled  with  fruit  for  the 
use  of  man."^  This  poetic  utterance  implies 
a  veritable  te/009  yotjuto?,  or  holy  marriage  of 
earth  and  heaven  in  the  Greek  sense  ;  and 
reminds  us  vi\ddly  of  the  spell-formula,  used 
in  the  Eleusinian  Mysteries  and  descending 
from  the  period  when  the  purpose  of  these 
was  mainly  agricultural,  Ye  Kve,  "Rain  and 
Conceive,"  which  was  uttered  by  the  mystes, 
who  folded  his  arms  and  glanced  up  to  the  sky 
at  the  first  word  and  down  to  the  earth  at 
the  second  :  a  spell-prayer  for  fertility  and 
human  increase.     It  is  probably  then  correct 

1  Golther,  op.  cit.,  pp.  647-648. 

2  In  a  pre-Conquest  Cotton  MS.  in  the  British  Museum, 
vide  Grein's  Bibliothek  der  angelsdchsischen  Poesie :  ed. 
Miilcker,  vol.  i.  p.  31 6. 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer     195 

to  call  this  phrase  of  our  ancestors,  which  is 
the  only  surviving  fragment,  so  far  as  I  am 
aware,  of  their  pre-Christian  liturgy,  a  spell- 
prayer  that  was  efficacious  by  way  of  sugges- 
tion rather  than  of  entreaty. 

Of  the  same  ambiguous  character  was  the 
old  Roman  chant  of  the  priests  of  Mars, 
"  Enos  Lases  juvate,"  "  Help  us,  O  spirits  of 
our  ancestors,"  repeated  with  the  iteration 
common  in  enchantments  and  accompanied 
with  dancing  and  with  the  utterance  of  the 
word  "triumpe."  From  the  higher  point  of 
view  the  Roman  prayers  that  have  come 
down  to  us  are  barren  and  dull ;  the  well- 
known  liturgical  archive  containing  Rome's 
address  to  Jupiter  in  the  critical  days  of  the 
Hannibalic  war  is  a  wary  and  cleverly  drawn 
legal  document,  intended  to  bind  the  god 
as  well  as  the  State.  ^  In  fact  the  spiritual 
side  of  the  old  Roman  character  has  left 
no  trace  of  itself  in  any  ritual  or  liturgy 
of   which  we   have   record.      The    prayer    of 

1  Livy,  22,  10. 


196    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

Cato's    that    has    been    preserved    is    merely 
materiahstic.^ 

We  expect  much  more  from  Greece,  and  in 
some  measure  we  are  not  disappointed.  Spell- 
ritual  was  no  doubt  always  much  in  vogue, 
especially  for  the  purposes  of  agriculture  and 
purification  :  we  hear  of  certain  "  magicians  " 
or  fidyoi  of  Cleonae  who  averted  hailstorms 
with  incantations  and  the  shedding  of  their 
own  blood.^  And  a  solemn  part  of  the  State 
liturgy  in  Greece  was  a  commination  service, 
which  pronounced  a  curse  on  certain  offences 
against  the  State.  The  religious  curse  is  an 
interesting  phenomenon  of  which  it  is  not  easy 
to  give  briefly  a  full  and  exact  anthropo- 
logical account ;  it  is  taken  up  by  the  higher 
religions,  but  it  by  no  means  originated  in 
them,  belonging  to  the  sphere  of  spell  rather 
than  of  prayer,  and  working  out  its  effect 
by   means   of  magic   suggestion.      Even   the 

1  De  Re  Rustica,  139^  141  :  Wordsworth,  Fragments  and 
Specimens  of  Ear  It/  Latin,  p.  335. 

2  Clemens,  Strom.,  p.  754,  Pott. 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer     197 

Jewish  service,  which  we  still  use  on  Ash 
Wednesday,  employs  curse-formulse  in  which 
there  is  no  immediate  reference  to  God,  and 
they  may  have  been  regarded  originally  as 
having  an  independent  efficacy.  This  was 
certainly  the  case  in  Greece,  for  the  curse  was 
itself  personified  as  an  independent,  personal 
power;  and  the  Erinyes  themselves,  in  some 
degree  the  personal  embodiments  of  the  curse, 
work  their  effect  on  the  victim  by  singing  a 
spell-song,  according  to  iEschylus,  which  binds 
his  soul  and  withers  him  away/  And  the 
many  private  "  devotiones  "  or  "  dirae  "  that 
have  come  down  to  us  from  Greek  antiquity, 
written  usually  on  leaden  tablets  and  conse- 
crating the  enemy  to  the  powers  of  the  lower 
world,  employ  indeed  an  appeal  to  these  powers 
that  may  be  interpreted  as  prayer,  but  their 
essential  quality  is  magical,  and  they  certainly 
were  supposed  to  operate  as  spells  against  the 
individual,  while  even  the  divinities  to  whom 
they   are   addressed  appear  to  be  constrained 

1  Eumen.,  332. 


ig8    The  Evolution   of  Religion 

rather  than  entreated.  In  one  interesting 
example  of  the  first  century  a.d.,  found  in 
iEgina,^  of  Hellenic -Christian  or  possibly 
Judaic  origin,  the  curse  takes  on  the  form  of  a 
prayer  for  righteous  vengeance — "  I  call  on  the 
Highest  God,  the  Lord  of  all  spirits  and  of 
all  flesh,  before  whom  every  soul  this  day  is 
humbled  with  supplication,  against  those  who 
have  treacherously  slain  or  poisoned  the  unfor- 
tunate Heracleia."  In  the  Greek  legal  pro- 
cedure a  curse  was  sometimes  uttered  against 
oneself  if  one  forswore  oneself  or  if  one 
was  guilty  of  the  charge ;  and  here  as  in 
similar  cases  in  Christian  jurisprudence  the 
curse  is  an  invocation  of  the  high  god  who 
will  punish  perjury  ;  but  we  find  it  similarly 
employed  in  the  animistic  stage  of  religion,  by 
the  African  for  instance,  who  takes  an  oath  by 
his  fetich,^  "  May  this  fetich  slay  me  if  I  do 
not  fulfil  the  contract "  ;  and  in  such  cases  we 
must  regard  the  curse  as  a  spell  working  by 

1  Dittenberger,  /Si///o^e '^^^  vol.  iii.  81 6. 

2  Post,  Afrikanisch.  Jurisprud.,  2,  p.  128. 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer     199 

suggestion   against   oneself  rather   than   as  a 
prayer. 

Before  considering  Greek  prayer  proper,  we 
may  note  as  a  last  example  of  an  ambiguous 
formula,  standing  midway  as  it  seems  between 
spell  and  prayer,  the  striking  liturgical  utter- 
ance of  the  old  Dodonaean  ritual,  employed 
for  an  agricultural  service :  the  priestesses 
chanted  the  refrain  in  two  hexameters,  the  old 
metre  of  religion,  "  God  was,  God  is,  God  will 
be,  oh  Great  God  ;  the  earth  brings  forth  fruits, 
therefore  call  on  mother  earth."^  The  resem- 
blance of  this  to  the  early  English  formula 
quoted  above  is  striking  enough.  The  first 
hne  belongs  to  an  elevated  religion  and  seems 
far  removed  from  the  region  of  magic  ;  but 
equally  spiritual  formulas  concerning  the 
nature  and  the  attributes  of  God  were  used  in 
the  Zarathustrian  and  Babylonian  liturgies  for 
magical  purposes,  just  as  texts  from  the  Bible 
and  Koran  have  been.  And  the  second  line 
employs   the    same    method    as    the    Navajo 

1   Paus.,  10,  12,  10. 


200    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

Sharman  employed,  for  it  states  that  the 
divinity  is  doing  that  very  thing  which  it 
is  the  object  of  the  Hturgy  to  bring  about. 
The  appeal  to  mother  earth  which  is  enjoined 
may  have  been  merely  the  invocation  of  her 
name,  a  spell  at  least  as  much  as  a  prayer. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  the  other  popular 
refrains  chanted  by  the  husbandmen  of  ancient 
Greece  to  obtain  good  crops  or  fair  weather — 
'*  Give  us  big  sheaves,  sheaves,"  to  Demeter,^ 
or  "  Come  forth,  dear  sun,"  to  the  sun-god.^ 

The  public  prayers  of  Greece,  those  actually 
used  in  the  temple-service  and  the  official 
liturgies,  have  not  been  preserved,  and  in  this 
respect  the  Greek  record  is  very  barren  com- 
pared with  the  Babylonian,  Vedic,  or  Iranian. 
But  though  the  actual  formulae  are  lost,  we  can 
gather  some  impression  from  the  inscriptions 
and  other  literary  sources  as  to  the  objects  of 
prayer.     The  Athenian  state  prayed,  "  For  the 

^  TrActcTTov  ovXov  lei,  lovXov  tet,  Athenae.,  6l8  E. 

2  The  song  sung  by  the  children,  probably  an  old 
weather-spell,  called  (fnXrjXia^,  with  the  refrain,  e$€x'  w  0t'A.' 
^Xte,  Pollux,  9,  123,  Athenae.,  t)  19  B. 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer    201 

health  and  safety  of  the  people  of  the 
Athenians,  their  wives  and  children  and  all 
in  the  country,"  ^  and  the  formula  might  in- 
clude a  prayer  for  the  prosperity  of  their  allies, 
such  as  Milesians  or  Platseans.  But  we  have 
no  indications  that  the  blessings  prayed  for 
included  others  besides  the  material  ones.  The 
Lacedaemonians  are  commended  by  Socrates  ^ 
for  refraining  from  specifying  any  particular 
want,  either  in  their  private  or  public  prayers, 
but  contenting  themselves  with  praying  that 
the  gods  should  grant  them  ra  Koka  inl  toI^ 
dyaOols :  the  phrase  has  something  of  a 
genuine  ring,  and  is  probably  derived  from  a 
real  liturgy,  but  it  is  not  absolutely  precise ; 
it  seems,  however,  to  comprise  spiritual  bless- 
ings as  well  as  material,  and  in  this  respect  to 
be  unique  among  the  public  prayers  in  Greece, 
if  we  dare  judge  them  by  the  scanty  record. 
Probably  the  formula?  were  very  old  and  the 
range  of  aspiration  usually  narrow  ;   and   the 

1  Ephem.  ArchaioL,  1891,  p-  82. 

2  Plato,  Alcibiad.,  2,  p.  148  C. 


202    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

idea  that  moral  advance  could  be  attained  by 
prayer  is  perhaps  hardly  likely  to  have  been 
reflected  in  them  ;  yet  we  must  take  note  of 
the  plaintive  question  put  by  the  Corcyrasan 
state,  weary  of  civic  strife  and  massacre,  to 
the  Dodonsean  oracle,  asking,  *'  To  what  god 
or  what  hero  shall  we  pray  in  order  to  obtain 
concord,  and  to  govern  our  city  fairly  and 
well  ? "  ^  and  we  find  an  educational  official 
of  Cos,  in  the  second  century  B.C.,  praying 
**  for  the  health  and  the  virtuous  behaviour  of 
the  boys." ' 

We  are  better  informed  concerning  the 
style  of  private  prayer  in  Greece,  as  also  con- 
cerning the  theory  of  prayer  that  gradually 
commended  itself  to  the  highest  intelligences. 
The  average  private  man  was  certainly 
capable  of  praying  for  blessings  other  than 
material.  We  have  the  prayer  of  a  potter  of 
Metapontum,  of  the  sixth  century  B.C.,  praying 

1  Collitz,     Dialect-Inschrijl,     1562,     1563,    early   fourth 
century  B.C. 

2  Collitz,  3648. 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer    203 

to  the  god  that  he  might  "  have  a  good  report 
among  men."  ^     Among  the  prayers  contained 
in   the   Hterature    of    the    fifth   century,    our 
interest    is    arrested    by    such    utterances   as 
Pindar's,  "  May  I  walk,  oh  God,  in  the  guileless 
paths  of  Hfe,  and  leave  behind  me  a  fair  name 
for  my  children  "  ;  ^  and  again,  "  Oh  God  that 
bringest  all  things  to  pass,  grant  me  the  spirit 
of  reverence  for  noble  things  "  ;  ^  and  by  this  of 
Euripides,  "  May  the  spirit  of  chastity  abide 
with  me,  the  fairest  gift  of  God." '     To  this 
age   may   belong   the  poetical  fragment  of  a 
banquet    song — for   the    Greeks    could    pray 
genially   and  seriously   in  the  midst  of  social 
intercourse — which  must  have  once  had  much 
vogue  :  "  Oh  Pallas,    born   of  waters.  Queen 
Athena,  mayest  thou  and  thy  father  keep  this 
city    and    its  citizens  in  prosperity,  free  from 
sorrow,  civic  discord,  and  untimely  deaths."^ 
The  prayers  of  Xenophon  and  Plutarch  may 

1  Roberts,  Greek  Epigraphy ^  vol.  i.  p.  304. 

2  Nem.,  8,  ^5.  ^  Ol'.,  13,  115.  '  Med.,  635. 
5  Bergk,  Frag.  Lyr.  Grcec,  vol.  iii.,  Scolia  2. 


204    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

be  taken  as  typical  of  the  average  ethical 
feeling  of  their  respective  periods  :  the  former 
petitions  for  "  health,  bodily  strength,  good 
feeling  among  friends,  safety  in  war,  and 
wealth "  ;  ^  the  latter  for  "  wealth,  concord, 
righteousness  in  word  and  deed."^ 

Meantime  the  philosophers  from  Socrates 
onwards  were  insisting  on  the  more  spiritual 
view  of  prayer,  preaching  that,  in  the  first  place, 
there  was  no  need  to  particularise  one's  needs 
in  one's  petitions  to  God,  for  there  was  danger 
lest  one  should  pray  for  what  is  injurious  ;  in 
the  second  place,  that  prayer  should  look  only 
to  the  spiritual,  not  the  material  life.  And  we 
owe  to  this  theory  some  striking  utterances 
that  must  rank  high  in  the  literature  of  ethical 
religion  :  such  as  the  prayer  of  Socrates,  SoC-qre 
fjiOL  Kokca  yeveaOai  TavSoOev,  "  Grant  me  to  be- 
come noble  of  heart  "^ ;  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana, 
w  0eol  hoirjTe  /xot  ra  6(j)€L\6fji€T/a,  "  Oh  gods,  grant 
me  that  which  I  deserve  "  * ;  the  longer  poetic 

1  (Econ.,  11,  8.  ^  De  Superst.,  p.  Il6  D. 

3  Plat.,  Phcedr.,  279  B.  *  Philostr.,  Fit.  ApolL,  4,  41. 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer    205 

formula  quoted  by  Plato,  "  King  Zeus,  grant 
us  the  good  whether  we  pray  for  it  or  not,  but 
evil  keep  from  us  though  we  pray  for  it  "  ^ :  and 
with  these  we  may  compare  the  dictum  of 
Epictetus  '^ :  "  In  praying  to  the  divine  powers 
ask  for  divine  things,  things  free  from  fleshly  or 
earthly  circumstance."  Other  expressions  of 
the  Stoic  sect  are  equally  striking  for  the  spirit 
of  fervent  acquiescence  and  resignation  that  in- 
spires them.  Here  is  the  prayer  of  Epictetus  : 
*'  Do  with  me  what  thou  wilt :  my  will  is  thy 
will:  I  appeal  not  against  thy  judgments  "^ ; 
and  a  poetic  version  of  this  has  come  down  to 
us  from  earlier  stoicism — "  Lead  me,  O  God, 
and  I  will  follow,  willingly  if  I  am  wise,  but  if 
not  willingly  I  still  must  follow."  A  prayer  re- 
corded in  the  apocryphal  Acts  of  St  Thomas  * 
seems  almost  an  echo  of  these  :  "  1  go  whither 
Thou  wilt,  oh  Jesus  :  Thy  will  be  done." 
When   the   best   thought   of  the   age    had 

1  Plat.,  Alcib.,  2,  p.  143  A. 

2  Epictet.  (Schenkle),  p.  479-  ^  ^d.,  p.  158. 
4  Von  der  Goltz,  Das  Gehet,  p.  292. 


2o6    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

reached  to  such  a  point  of  spiritual  abstraction, 
it  was  natural  that  the  same  question  should 
arise  as  arose  among  the  more  philosophic 
adherents  of  early  Christianity,  whether  special 
prayers  were  justifiable  at  all.  It  seems  that 
at  some  period  the  Pythagorean  school  were 
inclined  to  forbid  prayer  altogether,^  for  the 
reason  that  God  knew  better  how  to  give  than 
man  knew  how  to  ask ;  but  the  later  Neo- 
Platonism  discovered  an  ideal  raison-d'etre 
for  the  practice,  on  the  ground  that  it  raised 
the  mind  to  direct  communion  and  converse 
with  God  ;  and  this  view  is  developed  at 
great  length  by  Proclus.^ 

This  sketch  of  the  Greek  phenomena  that 
belong  to  our  subject  may  close  with  an 
example  of  that  perfervid  mysticism  that 
marks  the  liturgies   of  latest   paganism :   the 

1  Diog.  Laert.  8,  \6,1  :  yet,  according  to  Clemens,  "The 
Pythagoreans  enjoin  that  prayer  should  be  uttered  aloud,  so 
that  one  might  never  pray  for  what  one  would  be  ashamed 
that  others  should  hear,"  Strom.,  p.  641,  Pott. 

2  Porphyry  ap.  Proclus  in  Ti?n.,  2,  64  B  :  Procl.  in  Tim.^ 
2,  65  :  Sallustius,  De  Diis  et  Mundo,  c.  l6  :  cf.  Max.  Tyr., 
Dissert,  xi. 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer    207 

following  is  the  close  of  a  long  address  to 
Asclepios — an  Hellenic  deity  attracted  here 
into  the  Egyptian  circle — found  in  the  treatise 
called  Asclepios,  attributed  to  Apuleius  ;  ^  "We 
rejoice  in  thy  divine  salvation,  because  thou 
hast  shown  thyself  wholly  to  us  :  we  rejoice 
that  thou  hast  deigned  to  consecrate  us  to 
eternity,  while  we  are  still  in  these  mortal 
bodies.  We  have  known  thee,  oh  true  life  of 
the  life  of  man.  .  .  .  Adoring  thy  goodness, 
we  make  this  our  only  prayer  .  .  .  that  thou 
wouldst  be  willing  to  keep  us  all  our  lives  in 
the  love  of  thy  knowledge."  Portions  at  least 
of  this  prayer,  which  was  the  prelude  to  a 
communion  supper,  would  not  surprise  us  if 
we  found  it  in  a  Christian  liturgy.^ 

1  Vide  Archiv  fur  vergl.  Religionswissensck.,  1904,  p.  395, 

2  The  remarkable  ethical  fragment  of  an  unknown 
philosopher,  Eusebios,  in  Ionic  dialect,  quoted  by  Stobseus, 
irepl  dpeTT^g,  §  85  (vol.  i.  p.  39,  Meineke),  contains  moral 
aspirations  that  strikingly  resemble  New  Testament 
doctrine,  and  may  possibly  have  been  intended  as  a  prayer, 
but  it  contains  no  appeal  to  a  divinity :  he  may  belong  to 
the  Neo-Platonic  sect,  vide  Orelli,  Opusc.  Groec.  Senteni., 
vol.  ii.  p.  728. 


2o8     The   Evolution  of  Religion 

It  will  be  convenient  next  to  glance  at  the 
records  of  the  other  great  branches  of  the 
ancient  Aryan  world,  the  Vedic  Indians  and 
the  Iranians.  One  does  not  read  long  in  the 
sacred  books  of  India  without  attaining  the 
conviction  that  the  highest  religion  of  the  Vedas 
was  deeply  penetrated  with  sacerdotal  magic  ; 
which  was  so  far  from  losing  its  hold  in  the 
later  period  that  it  imprisoned  the  religious 
thought,  and  the  later  Brahmanism  was  cap- 
able of  the  belief  that  without  the  spell  of  the 
sacrifice  the  sun  could  not  run  his  course  in 
heaven.  And  the  recital  of  spells  forms  a 
great  part  of  the  Vedic  ritual.  Thus  the 
hymns  say  of  the  fire-god  Agni,  "  The  thought- 
ful men  find  Agni  when  they  have  recited 
the  spells  "  ;  and  the  gods  themselves,  like  the 
Norse  divinities,  work  by  spells :  ''  Agni  up- 
holds the  sky  by  his  efficacious  spells."  ^  Yet 
the  early  record  gives  us  also  copious  illustra- 
tion of  real  prayer,  and  occasionally  of  a  very 
exalted  tone.     It  is  true,  as  we  should  expect, 

1    Vedic  Hymns,  pt.  ii.  p.  6l. 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer    209 

that  material  and  temporal  advantages  are  by 
far  the  predominant  objects  of  the  petition : 
the  head  of  the  household  prays  for  wealth, 
offspring,  victory  in  battle  or  the  races ;  with 
rare  exceptions,  the  prayers  are  personal  and 
private  rather  than  political,  and  are  thus  in 
marked  contrast  to  the  Hellenic  ;  yet  we  have 
a  few  that  are  evidently  proffered  for  the 
community,^  and  at  times  the  deity  is  peti- 
tioned to  grant  an  abundant  supply  of  valiant 
men.  But  even  in  the  few  prayers  that  reflect 
the  political  lile  of  the  State,  the  individualistic 
spirit  is  apt  to  appear.  We  have  a  curious 
example  of  a  petition  to  Indra  to  make  a 
man  powerful  in  the  political  assembly : 
**  In  this  entire  gathering  render,  O  Indra, 
me  successful,"  and  this  is  combined  with  a 
naive  spell  whereby  the  politician  endeavours 
to  mesmerise  the  whole  meeting :  he  names 
the  assembly — as  our  Speaker  might  name  a 
recalcitrant  member — "  We  know  thy  name, 

1  E.g.,  *'  Protect  our  people  all  around  with  those  un- 
deceived guardians  of  thine,  oh  Agni,"  ib.^  p.  158. 

14 


2IO    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

oh  assembly.  ...  Of  them  that  are  sitting 
together  I  take  to  myself  the  power  and  the 
understanding  "  :  and  again,  "  With  my  mind 
do  I  seize  your  minds."  ^  But  even  when 
the  prayer  is  personal  and  materialistic  a  real 
fervour  and  a  genial  poetic  freshness  is  often 
to  be  found.  Here  is  a  beautiful  prelude 
to  a  prayer  for  long  life  proffered  to  the 
ancient  heaven-god :  "  Many  dawns  have  not 
yet  dawned :  grant  me  to  live  in  them, 
O  Varuna."  And  often  the  worshipper  rises 
above  mere  material  aspirations,  as  in  such 
appeals  to  Agni  as  the  following:  "May  we 
be  well-doers  before  the  gods.'"^  "Give  us 
not  up,  oh  Agni,  to  want  of  thought."^ 
"  Mayest  thou  bestow  splendour,  renown,  and 
(wise)  mind  upon  such  mortals  as  satisfy  thee 
with  refreshment,  oh  Agni."*  "Drive  far 
from  us  senselessness  and  anguish :  drive  far 
all    ill-will    from    whom     thou    attendest."^ 


1  Atharva-Veda  {Sacred  Books,  vol.  xlii.  p.  138). 

2  Vedic  Hymns,  pt.  ii.  p.  376. 

3  Ih.,  p.  273.  4  Ih.,  p.  383.  ^  /^^  p.  352. 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer    211 

At  times  also  the  hymns  reveal  a  deep 
consciousness  of  sin  and  a  desire  for  divine 
forgiveness.  "  Through  want  of  strength, 
thou  strong  and  bright  god,  have  I  gone 
astray.  Have  mercy,  Almighty,  have 
mercy  ! "  ^  "  Agni,  drive  away  from  us  sin, 
which  leads  us  astray."  ^  **  By  the  earth's  great- 
ness, oh  Agni,  forgive  us  even  committed  sin, 
that  we  maybe  great."  ^  *' Whatever  sin  we 
have  committed  against  thee  in  thoughtless- 
ness, men  as  we  are,  make  thou  us  sinless 
before  Aditi."*  Yet  we  may  suspect  that 
the  term  sin  is  not  always  used  in  these 
prayers  in  its  modern  ethical  sense,  not  for 
instance  in  the  prayer,  "  From  the  sins  which 
knowingly  or  unknowingly  we  have  com- 
mitted, do  ye,  all  gods,  of  one  accord  release 
us "  ;  ^  and  the  primitive  concept  on  which 
the  old  magic  of  sin-transference  was  based 
survives  in   such   passages   as   the  following : 

1  Quoted  by  Prof.  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  vol.  ii.  p.  339, 
from  Rig  Veda,  vii.  89,  3. 

2  Fedic  Hymns,  pt.  ii.  p.  181.  ^  ^^  p_  249. 

*  lb.,  p.  354.  ^  Atharva-Veda,  p.  l64. 


212     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

"  Pass  far  away,  oh  sin  of  the  mind  :  why  dost 
\  thou  utter   things   not   to  be  uttered  ?     Pass 
/  away,  I  love  thee  not :   to  the  trees  and  the 
j  forests  go  on  !  "  ^     "  Enter  into  the  rays,  into 
'  smoke,  oh  sin ;  go  into  the  vapours,  and  into 
the   fog."^      The   context   discloses    only   an 
/  indirect   appeal   to   a  personal   deity,  though 
the  term  sin  in  the  former  passage  is  clearly 
applied  to  what  we  should  call  moral  offences. 
In  the  Vedic  ritual,  then,  we  find  a  pure  and 
spiritual  form  of  prayer ;  yet  a  certain  spell- 
power  may  attach  even  to  the  highest  types, 
for  we  find   not   infrequently  the   conception 
that  not  only  the  power  of  the  worshipper  but 
the  power  of  the  deity  also  is  nourished  and 
strengthened  by  prayer  ;  ^  and  the  prayer  itself 
is  usually  accompanied  by  a  potent  act.     With 
this  aspect  of  Vedic  prayers  we  may  associate 

1  Atharva-Veda,  p.  l63.        ^  /^.^  p    155 

3  "  Bring  ye  forward  an  ancient  mighty  speech  to  Agni. 
.  .  .  May  our  prayers  increase  Agni/'  Vedic  Hymns , 
pt.  ii.  p.  259:  cf.  p.  391,  "The  prayers  fill  thee  (oh 
Agni)  with  power  and  strengthen  thee^  like  great  rivers 
the  Sindhu." 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer    213 

the  fact  that  Agni,  the  fire-god,  appears  as  the 
chief  divinity  to  whom  they  are  addressed  ;  for 
his  ritual  is  purificatory,  and  the  prayers  are 
thus  based  on  a  hturgy  of  purification  which 
stimulates  the  mental  or  spiritual  force  of  the 
worshipper. 

We  may  now  turn  to  another  great  Aryan 
stock,  the  Iranian,  whose  earlier  religion 
culminated  in  the  Zarathustrian  system.  The 
relation  of  spell  to  prayer  is,  on  the  whole, 
the  same  in  the  Zend-Avesta  as  we  find  it  in 
the  Vedic  hymns,  a  real  spell  can  accompany 
a  real  prayer,  and  the  text  of  the  prayer  itself 
becomes  a  most  potent  charm.  The  "sacer- 
dotal" physician,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  occupied 
a  higher  rank  in  the  Zarathustrian  estimate 
than  the  scientific  practitioner,  offers  first  a 
genuine  prayer  to  Ahura-Mazda  for  spiritual 
strength  to  deal  with  the  disease — "  Give  us, 
Ahura,  that  powerful  sovereignty  by  the 
strength  of  which  we  may  smite  down  the 
drug  (the  demon)."  Fraught  with  this 
mesmeric    power    he    then    directs    his   spell 


214    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

against  the  sickness  -  demon :  "To  thee,  oh 
Sickness,  I  say — A  vaunt !  To  thee,  oh  Death, 
I  say — A  vaunt ! "  ^  And  in  the  ritual  of 
purification,  which  closely  resembles  the 
system  of  therapeutics,  the  formulae  of  prayers 
of  the  most  exalted  type  in  the  sacred  books 
are  used,  not  as  prayers,  but  as  cathartic  spells.^ 
It  is  not  hard  to  discern  the  steps  that  lead 
from  this  grade  of  thought  to  the  highest  at 
which  the  religious  speculation  of  the  Zara- 
thustrian  arrived.  The  uttered  Word  of  God 
is  given  a  supernatural  cosmic  force ;  and  the 
prophet  pronounces  that  this  utterance  of  the 
**  Holy  Word  is  of  such  a  nature  that  if  all 
the  corporeal  and  living  world  should  learn  it, 
and  learning  hold  fast  to  it,  they  should  be 
redeemed  from  their  mortality."^  And  we 
can  understand  why  a  large  part  of  the  Zara- 
thustrian  liturgy  should  be  devoted  to  the 
recital  of  formula?  which  are  statements  of  the 


1  Sacred  Books,  etc.,  vol.  iv.  (Zend-Avesta,  pt.  i.  p.  228). 

2  76.,  pp.  145-147. 

3  Sacred  Books,  etc.,  vol.  xxxi.  {Zend-Avesta, -pi.  iii.  p.  262.) 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer    215 

Mazdean  faith.  Before  rising  in  the  morning 
and  retiring  at  night,  the  pious  Persian  was 
recommended  to  say,  **  All  good  thoughts,  all 
good  words,  all  good  deeds  I  do  willingly : 
all  evil  thoughts,  all  evils  words,  all  evil  deeds 
I  do  unwillingly."^  It  is  interesting  to  com- 
pare with  our  own  creed  the  following  Mazdean 
confession  :  "I  confess  myself  a  Mazdayasnian 
of  Zarathustra's  order  :  I  celebrate  my  praises 
for  good  thoughts,  good  words,  and  good 
deeds.  .  .  .  With  chanting  praises  I  present  all 
good  thoughts,  good  words,  and  good  deeds, 
and  with  rejection  I  repudiate  all  evil 
thoughts  and  words  and  deeds.  Here  I  give 
to  you,  oh  ye  Bountiful  Immortals,  sacrifice 
and  homage  with  the  mind,^  with  words,  deeds, 
and  my  entire  person,  yea,  I  offer  to  you  the 
flesh  of  my  very  body."^  The  formulas  of 
confession,  as  well  as  other  parts  of  this  liturgy, 
are  penetrated  with  the  idea  of  a  moral-theo- 

1  Zend-Avesta,  pt.  i.  p.  246. 

2  Cf.    the    Greek    sentiment^  Ova-ia    apia-r-q  yvoifx-q  ayaBrj, 
Joann.  Damascen.^  Sacr.  Par.,  tit.  ix.  p.  640. 

3  Zend-Avesta,  pt.  iii.  p.  247. 


2i6    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

logical  dualism  to  which  our  Christian  theology 
has  been  indirectly  deeply  indebted.  The 
Mazdean  proclaims  his  detestation  of  the 
Daevas,  and  of  Angra-Mainyu,  the  evil  god. 
"  Taught  by  Ahura,  I  drive  away  Angra- 
Mainyu  from  this  house,  this  borough  " ;  such 
words  are  "  victorious,  most  healing,"  ^  and 
could  be  used  as  the  recitation  of  our  creed 
and  paternoster  have  been  used,  as  veritable 
spells  against  the  evil  power  or  demon.  But 
in  comparing  the  spell-prayers  of  the  Persian 
with  the  Vedic,  we  are  struck  with  the  superi- 
ority of  the  former  liturgy  in  one  respect, 
that  here  the  spell  is  only  brought  to  bear  on 
the  demon,  not  on  the  highest  god ;  the 
prayer  increases  the  spiritual  force  of  the 
worshipper  but  does  not  constrain  Ahura. 

And  the  Iranian  prayers  appear  to  rise 
above  the  Vedic  in  the  enthusiasm  of  the  idea 
of  righteousness  that  pervades  them,  and  in 
the  conviction  that  the  believer  can  aid  Ahura- 
Mazda   in   the  continual  struggle  against  the 

1  Zend-Avesta,  pt.  i.  p.  138, 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer    217 

power  of  evil  and  in  helping  towards  the  final 
establishment  of  the  righteous  kingdom.  He 
prays  that,  "Through  the  good  thought  and 
the  holiness  of  him  who  offers  thee  the  due 
meed  of  praise  thou  mayest,  oh  Lord,  make 
the  world  of  Resurrection  appear  at  thy  will, 
under  thy  sovereign  rule."^  "  May  we  be  such 
as  those  who  bring  on  this  great  Renovation."^ 
"  May  we  help  to  bring  on  the  good  govern- 
ment of  Ahura,  which  is  the  best  for  us  at 
every  present  hour."^  "  Be  righteousness  life- 
strong  and  clothed  with  body.  In  that  realm 
which  shines  with  splendour  as  the  sun,  let 
piety  be  present,  and  may  she,  through  the 
indwelling  of  thy  good  mind,  give  us  blessings 
in  reward  for  deeds."*  In  fact  the  greater 
number  of  the  prayers  are  strikingly  spiritual, 
and  for  spiritual,  not  material  blessings.  The 
prophet  asks  Ahura,  "  How  man  may  become 
most  hke  unto  thee  ?  "^  and  prays  for  "  aids 
of  grace,  beseeching  what  in  accordance  with 

1  Pt  i.  p.  147.  -   Pt.  iii.  pp.  33-34. 

3  Ih.,  p.  179.  '  Ih.,  p.  106.  -  lb.,  p.  49. 


2i8     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

thy  wished-for  aim  is  best."^  And  the  prayer 
is  sometimes  directed  to  abstract  moral  powers, 
emanations  of  Ahura:  "If  the  Mazda- Ahura 
and  Righteousness  and  Pious  Concord  be 
invokable,  I  implore  through  tlie  good  mind  a 
kingdom  for  myself,  through  whose  increase 
we  may  conquer  the  Lie."  The  kingdom  is 
here  the  "Desirable  Kingdom  of  Righteous- 
ness."^ Certainly  the  Mazdean  kingdom  was 
not  of  this  world,  and  the  Zarathustrian 
religion  is  one  of  the  least  materialistic  that 
the  world  has  known  ;  its  chief  moral  weakness 
being,  as  we  have  seen,  its  bondage  to  ritualistic 
purity.  We  may  note  in  conclusion,  as  show- 
ing the  continuity  of  the  national  spirit,  the 
pronouncement  of  a  Persian  Christian,  Bishop 
Aphrahat  of  East  Syria,  that  the  only  valid 
object  of  prayer  was  purity  of  heart. ^ 

Many  of  the  phenomena  that  we  have  been 
noting  among   the   Aryan   races   confront  us 

1  Pt.  iii.,  p.  170. 

^  Archivf.  ReligionsTviss.,  1904,  p.  395. 

3  Von  der  Goltz,  Das  Gebet,  p.  288. 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer    219 

again  when  we  turn  to  the  Chaldaean-Baby- 
lonian  hturgies.  Here  also  there  appears  no 
real  antagonism  between  spell  and  prayer, 
magic  and  religion.^  Spell-formulae  are  used 
and  accompanied  with  a  ritual  of  purification 
to  drive  out  the  evil  spirits  of  sickness ;  and 
the  highest  hymns  containing  real  prayers 
can  be  employed  as  texts  for  magic  purposes  ; 
even  the  gods  themselves  work  by  magic,  and 
Marduk  himself  is  invoked  as  the  arch- 
magician.^  And  the  idea  that  the  prayer 
could  in  some  sense  exercise  compulsion  on 
the  god  appears  in  an  anecdote  told  by 
Porphyry  about  a  Chaldaean  who  was  an  expert 
in  "  purifications  of  the  soul :  but  found  his 
efforts  thwarted  because  another  man  who  was 
powerful  in  the  same  art  had,  by  means  of 
mystic  prayers,  bound  over  the  powers  he  had 
invoked  not  to  grant  his  demands."^  Yet  by 
the  side  of  all  this  we  find  often  an  exalted 


1  Jastrow,  Religion    Babyloniens   w.   Assynens,  vol.  i.  pp. 
391-393,  423,  427. 

2  Ih.,  p.  497.  3  S.  Aug.,  Be  Civ.  Dei.,  10,  9- 


220    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

type  of  prayer,  with  spiritual  and  fervent 
expressions  of  homage  ;  and  the  religious  law 
that  "  prayer  absolves  from  sin "  is  given  as 
part  of  Marduk's  revelation  to  man.^  A  large 
number  of  the  records  contain  the  liturgies 
used  by  the  kings,  and  while  victory,  health, 
and  long  life,  the  permanence  of  the  dynasty 
are  the  more  usual  objects  of  the  petition,  the 
deeper  ethical  tone  is  often  heard.  The 
following  are  a  few  examples  of  the  higher 
aspirations  of  the  Babylonian  religion.  The 
founder  of  the  new  Babylonian  kingdom  has 
recorded  his  convictions  for  the  guidance  of  his 
successor :  "  Marduk  sees  through  the  lips, 
sees  the  heart :  he  who  keeps  true  to  Bel  and 
the  son  of  Bel  will  last  for  ever."^  One  of  the 
greatest  prayers  in  this  or  any  other  liturgical 
collection  is  that  which  Nebukadnezar  made  to 
Marduk  on  his  accession  :^  "  Oh  Eternal  Ruler, 
Lord  of  All  .  .  .  lead  the  King  by  the  right 
way  ...  I  am  .  .  .  the  work   of  thy  hand : 

1  King,  Babylonian  Religion,  p.  83. 

2  Jastrow,  op.  cit.,  p.  401.  ^  //^ ^  p  492, 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer    221 

after  thy  great  mercy  which  thou  showest  to 
all,  oh  I^ord,  grant  that  thy  high  majesty  may 
show  compassion  upon  me :  set  in  my  heart 
the  fear  of  thy  Godhead  :  grant  me  what  thou 
deemest  best :  for  thou  it  is  that  hast  created 
my  life."  This  is  scarcely  the  Nebukadnezar 
whom  we  once  thought  we  knew.  There  is 
also  a  pathetic  interest  attaching  to  the  prayer 
of  Nabonnedos  to  the  god  Schamasch  for  his  son 
Belsazar :  ^  "  Prolong  the  days  of  Belsazar,  my 
first-born  son — may  he  commit  no  sin."  The 
king  Nabonnedos  prays  also  to  Marduk  :  "May 
I  rule  as  king  according  to  thy  wish  ...  let 
me  not  in  my  pride  lose  knowledge  of  thee, 
for  it  is  thou  that  hast  chosen  me  out."'  The 
following  phrases  in  a  prayer  to  JNIarduk  of  an 
unknown  ruler  are  still  more  striking :  "  Oh 
Marduk,  great  Lord  ...  let  me  behold  thy  God- 
head, let  me  attain  my  heart's  desire  :  set  right- 
eousness on  my  lips  and  grace  in  my  heart."  ^ 

1  Jastrow^  op.  cit.,  p.  408.  -  lb.,  p.  411. 

3  lb.,  p.  501  :  the  elevated  tone  of  the  old  Babylonian 
royal  liturgy  was  still  preserved  under  the  later  Seleukid 
rule,  vide  p.  414. 


222    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

Among  the  attributes  of  the  gods  there  is  a 
fervent  recognition  of  their  mercy  and  com- 
passionateness :  Marduk  is  "  the  god  full  of 
mercy,  who  loves  to  quicken  that  which  is 
dead  " ;  ^  and  Ischtar,  the  goddess,  is  invoked 
as  "the  helper  of  the  oppressed,  oh  thou 
endowed  with  majesty ;  thou  who  raisest 
the  fallen  and  exaltest  the  trodden  under 
foot."^  And  the  same  idea  reappears  in  a 
hymn  to  another  goddess  of  like  character 
with  Ischtar,  in  which  we  catch  the  tones  of 
a  high  religious  poetry  of  homage :  ^  ''  Oh 
strong  and  majestic,  highest  of  the  goddesses, 
radiant  star  .  .  .  strongest  of  the  goddesses 
whose  robe  is  the  light:  thou  who  dost 
course  through  heaven  and  engirdle  the 
earth  .  .  .  dealing  punishment  and  plead- 
ing for  men,  rewarding  the  just,  leading 
the  wanderer,  overthrowing  the  enemy  who 
feareth  not  thy  Godhead,  protecting  the 
captive,    taking   the   weak   by   the   hand — be 

1  Jastrow,  o'p.  cit.,  p.  501.  2  /^^  p,  533 

3  lb.,  p.  5^6. 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer     223 

gracious    unto   thy   servant,    who    calls    upon 
thy  name  with  grace." 

This  brief  illustrative  selection  may  close 
with  the  quotation  of  a  prayer  or  hymn  of 
praise  to  Marduk,  perhaps  the  most  remark- 
able among  those  that  have  as  yet  been 
translated :  ^  "  The  Lord,  peerless  in  might, 
the  King  of  grace,  the  Ruler  of  the  lands,  that 
bringeth  peace  in  heaven,  that  through  his 
glance  overthroweth  the  mighty.  Lord,  thy 
seat  is  Babylon,  thy  crown  Borsippa.  Thy 
thought,  oh  Lord,  passeth  over  the  wide 
heavens,  and  with  thine  eyes  thou  beholdest 
the  affliction  of  men,  through  the  anger  of  thy 
countenance  thou  spreadest  lamentation,  and 
thou  takest  him  captive  who  regardeth  thee 
not  and  setteth  himself  up  against  thee. 
Through  thy  gracious  countenance  thou 
showest  men  favour,  thou  lettest  them  see 
the  light  and  they  proclaim  thy  Righteous- 
ness. Oh  Lord  of  the  lands,  T^ight  of  Izizi, 
thou  who  proclaimest  grace,  who  is  it  whose 

1  Jastrow,  op.  cit.,  p.  509- 


224    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

mouth  doth  not  tell  of  thy  Righteousness,  who 
doth  not  praise  thy  majesty,  and  glorify  thy 
lordship  ?  .  .  .  Look  down  upon  the  hands 
raised  in  prayer  to  thee.  Grant  favour  to  thy 
city  Babylon  .  .  .  and  turn  thy  countenance 
upon  thy  house,  and  give  help  to  the  sons  of 
Babylon  and  all  thy  people." 

With  all  their  spells  and  their  magic,  the 
higher  minds  of  the  Babylonians  knew  how 
to  pray,  and  the  fervent  and  exalted  tones  of 
such  liturgies  remind  us  of  the  religious  poetry 
of  Israel.  And  it  is  interesting  to  note  that 
among  the  few  deities  of  Babylon  whose  ideal 
reached  to  such  a  point  of  ethical  development, 
the  moon-god  Sin  appears,  who  gave  his  name 
to  Sinai,  and  who  has  been  thought  by  some  to 
have  had  some  original  affinity  with  the  God 
of  Israel.^ 

As  regards  the  liturgies  of  Egypt,  so  far  as 
I  have  been  able  with  very  limited  oppor- 
tunities to  examine  them,  the  superstition  of 
the  spell  lay  so  heavy  on  the  Egyptian  mind, 

1  Jastrow,  op.  cit.j  pp.  439-4-40. 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer    225 

that  prayer  does  not  seem  able  to  extricate 
itself  from  its  prepossession.  Not  only  do  the 
deities  work  by  means  of  spells  and  the  magic 
of  their  names,  but  the  worshipper  uses  the 
same  means  to  work  upon  them ;  and  the 
prayer  that  accompanies  the  spell  seems 
usually  to  savour  of  self-confidence  and 
command.  At  least  this  is  the  impression 
one  gathers  from  what  is  published  concerning 
the  Book  of  the  Dead  and  the  ritual  practised 
to  secure  the  happiness  of  the  deceased.  By 
utterance  of  words  of  enchantment  over 
pictures,  the  soul  of  the  dead  becomes  divine.^ 
The  magic  word  helps  to  transfer  the  power 
of  the  deity  into  the  fetich,  and  this  with  the 
word  written  upon  it  is  placed  on  the  body 
of  the  dead :  for  instance,  an  amulet  with  the 
words,  "  May  the  blood  of  I  sis  .  .  .  and  the 
word  of  power  of  Isis  be  mighty  to  protect 
this  mighty  one  "  ;  ^  a  terra-cotta  lamp  of  the 
Greco-Roman  period,  carved  with  the  symbol 

1  Budge,  Egyptian  Magic,  pp.  108,  110,  120. 
2/6.,  p.  127. 

15 


2  26    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

of  the  frog-headed  goddess  Heqt,  and  bearing 
the  words,  '*  I  am  the  Resurrection."^  On  an 
object  placed  under  the  head  of  the  deceased 
to  maintain  the  warmth  of  the  body,  we  find 
the  following  words,  supposed  to  be  addressed 
by  the  spirit  to  Amen :  ^  "I  am  a  perfect 
spirit  among  the  companions  of  Ra,  and  I 
have  gone  in  and  come  forth  among  the 
perfect  souls  .  .  .  grant  thou  unto  me  the 
things  which  my  body  needeth,  and  heaven 
for  my  soul  and  a  hidden  place  for  my 
mummy."  "May  the  god  who  himself  is 
hidden  and  whose  face  is  concealed,  who 
shineth  upon  the  world  in  his  forms  of  exist- 
ence and  in  the  underworld,  grant  that  my 
soul  may  live  for  ever."^  Here  we  have  the 
statement  of  a  conviction  that  gains  its 
assurance  from  magic,  followed  by  prayer. 
It  seems  that  the  Egyptian  prayed  to  the 
gods,  as  if  by  such  prayer  he  might  gain 
immortality,  but   that   he   trusted  equally  to 

1  Budge,  Egyptian  Magic,  p.  63. 
2/6.,  p.  119.  ^  Ih.,^.  119. 


The   Evolution  of  Prayer    227 

magical  means,  to  pictures  and  words  of  power 
from  the  sacred  texts,  and  employed  at  once 
the  methods  of  religion  and  of  enchantment/ 

Looking  at  the  Christian  religion,  we  should 
find  it  hard  to  give  a  succinct  and  accurate 
account  of  these  phenomena  in  the  various 
stages  of  its  history.  We  may  be  able  to 
set  forth  the  theories  and  ritual -practices  of 
the  various  churches  and  compare  them  with 
what  we  find  elsewhere ;  but  it  is  more 
difficult  to  analyse  accurately  the  religious 
psychology,  the  thought  and  feeling  which 
accompanies  the  ritual :  the  quality  of  the 
mental  state  would  depend  partly  on  the 
ancestral  conditions  and  the  strength  of  the 
ancestral  instincts  of  the  individual.  And 
the  teaching  of  the  most  spiritual  Christian 
philosophy  has  not  been  able  to  prevent 
some  touches  of  the  old-world  magic  from 
contaminating  the  worship.  The  theory  of 
the  leading  thinkers  among  the  early  Christian 
fathers   agreed,    as   we    have   seen,    with    the 

1  Budge,  Egyptian  Magic,  p.  1 84. 


228     The  Evolution  of  Religion 

pronouncement  of  later  Greek  philosophy. 
Both  for  Clemens,  who  gives  us  the  earliest 
theory  of  Christian  prayer,  without  finding, 
however,  a  clear  logical  system,  and  for  Origen, 
the  final  justification  of  prayer  was  com- 
munion with  God,  TO  dvaKpadrjvau  rco  npevfJiaTLf^ 
ofjLLkia  77/009  Toj^  Oeov  rj  evxV'^  ^^^  Clemens 
maintains  that  the  true  gnostic,  he  who  has 
the  true  knowledge  of  God,  *'  works  himself 
with  God  in  his  prayer  so  as  to  attain  per- 
fection."^ The  gnostic  of  Clemens,  then,  is 
not  purely  petitionary  in  his  prayer ;  by  his 
spontaneous  self  -  projection  he  contributes 
something  himself  to  the  attainment  of  the 
end  he  prays  for;  and,  as  I  have  ventured 
to  suggest  above,  we  may  discern  in  this 
theory  the  meeting-point  of  the  more  primi- 
tive and  the  more  exalted  religious  views. 

Meantime   the   actual   heretic    sect   of    the 
gnostics  were  applying  much  of  the  old  magic 

1  Origen,  Trcpt  evxrj'S,  c.  10,  2. 

2  Clemens,  Strom.,  vii.,  ch.  7,  §  39,  p.  854,  Pott. 

3  lb.,  §  38,  p.  853,  Pott. 


The  Evolution  of  Prayer    229 

under  new  names  and  new  texts,  and  did  not 
even  care  to  discard  wholly  the  old  spell- 
nomenclature.^  And  even  in  the  orthodox 
churches,  as  we  have  seen,  the  mystic  power 
and  liturgical  use  of  the  name  has  continued, 
being  the  inheritance  of  a  different  religious 
world  from  that  with  which  we  are  familiar 
or  of  which  we  are  conscious.  We  may  also 
legitimately  compare  many  of  the  ritual  acts 
which  accompany  prayer,  for  instance  in  the 
earher  and  later  Roman  Church,  with  the 
suggestive  or  mimetic  religious  actions  of  less 
advanced  cults.  One  of  the  most  interesting 
examples  that  may  be  quoted  is  the  description 
of  the  blessing  of  the  baptismal  water  on  the 
eve  of  the  Epiphany,  a  custom  prevalent  in 
the  earlier  Church  of  Rome  :  ^  the  priest,  while 
praying  to  God  to  sanctify  the  water,  dipped  a 
crucifix  thrice  into  it,  recalling  in  his  prayer 
the  miracle  described  in  Exodus,  the  sweeten- 
ing   of    the    bitter   water   with   wood ;    then 

^  Fide  Von  der  Goltz,  op.  ciL,  p.  310. 

2  Vide  Usener,  Archiv  fiir  Religionsiviss.,  1904,  p.  293. 


230    The  Evolution  of  Religion 

followed  antiphonal  singing  describing  Christ's 
baptism  in  Jordan,  which  sanctified  the  water. 
We  appear  to  have  here  a  combination  of 
the  great  typical  forms  of  the  immemorial 
religious  energy,  prayer  pure  and  simple,  the 
potent  use  of  the  spiritually  charged  object, 
the  fetich  (in  this  case  the  crucifix),  and  an 
intoned  or  chanted  narrative  which  has  the 
spell- value  of  suggestion.^ 

What  maintained  the  use  of  the  spell- 
prayer  in  full  vigour  throughout  the  earlier 
and  medieval  epochs  of  Christendom,  even  in 
the  orthodox  ritual,  was  chiefly  the  practice 
of  exorcism  and  the  belief  in  demons  and 
demoniac  possession  ;  and  the  legal  institution 
of  the  ordeal  contributed  also  to  its  main- 
tenance. As  modern  society  has  abandoned 
such  institutions,  and  the  modern  mind  is  no 
longer  possessed  with  demonology,  so  in  the 
modern  worship  prayer  has  become  more  and 
more  purified  from  the  associations  of  the 
spell ;  the  traces  that  remain  of  the  latter  are 

^  Fide  .supra,  pp.  181-182. 


The   Evolution  of  Prayer    231 

faint  and  usually  unintelligible  to  the  modern 
worshipper.  And  on  the  other  side  there  is 
a  progressive  tendency  beginning  to  be  felt, 
making  for  a  reform  of  our  liturgy  in  respect 
of  the  objects  for  which  prayer  should  be 
proffered.  But  in  this  respect,  as  the  com- 
parison has  shown,  we  cannot  be  said  to  have 
advanced  as  yet  beyond  many  of  the  old-world 
religions. 

The  special  subjects  of  these  last  two 
lectures,  the  history  of  purification  and  prayer, 
have  only  been  presented  in  an  inadequate 
sketch.  The  full  and  exhaustive  treatment 
of  either  would  serviceably  fill  a  gap  in  the 
library  of  comparative  religion.  But  they 
have  served  my  present  purpose,  if  they  have 
been  able  to  illustrate  and  to  some  extent  test 
the  value  of  the  comparative  study  of  the 
various  theologies  of  mankind. 


Index 


Aion,  36,  37. 

Anthropology,  value  of,  5  : 
occasional  defects  in  its 
method  of  treating  re- 
ligious problems^  12-17: 
suggested  improvements  in 
method,  17-23. 

Apostolic  succession^  49-50. 

Babylonian  spells  and  prayers^ 

218-224. 
Baptism,    a    cathartic    ritual, 

156-158:     of   infants,   56- 

57. 
Buddhism,    ideas    concerning 

purity,  107. 

Celibacy  of  priesthood,  154- 
156. 

Christianity,  comparison  with 
earlier  '^  Mediterranean  " 
religions  in  mythology,  25- 
30  ;  in  terminology,  30-39  ; 
external  symbols,  39-48 ; 
institutions  and  organisa- 
tion, 48-58  ;  in  dogma  and 
belief,  59-75  :  vide  Prayer. 


'  Collideriani,  72. 

j  Comparative  religion,  method 

of     study,      81-85  :      short 
j       survey  of  its  growth,  1-6. 
Confession,  54-56,  158-l60. 
I  Cursing-ritual,  a  form  of  spell, 

196-198. 

Eschatological  beliefs,  63-64. 

Fasting,    a    cathartic    ritual, 

153-154. 
Festivals,   influence  of  pagan 

on  Christian,  58. 
Fetichism,  44-47  :  in  Hellas, 

44-45  :  in  Christianity,  45- 

47. 

j  Hellenism,       influence       on 
I       Christianity,  23. 
I  Hero-worship,  75-76. 
j  Hilaria,  62. 

i  Homicide,     cathartic     origin 
of    law     concerning,    140- 
j        152. 

!  Human  incarnation  of  divinity, 
:       59-60. 


Index 


233 


Human  sacrifice,  legends 
concerning,  27-28. 

Idolatry,  40-44. 
Indo-Germanic  spell,  193. 
Ischtar,  legend  of,  29. 

Kalevala,  184,  191. 
Kore,  33  :  gnostic-pagan  wor- 
ship of,  34-35,  65. 

Mariolatry,  65,  69,  72. 
Mexican  religion,  3. 
Montanism,  67. 
Mother  of  God,  38,  66. 

Names,  religious  influence  of, 
32,  184-192. 

Parthenos,  37-38  :  cf.  65,  69, 
70. 

Peruvian  religion,  3. 

Phrygian  religion,  24,  62,  66- 
68. 

Prayer  {vide  Spell)  definition 
of,  1 65 :  distinction  be- 
tween prayer  and  spell,  l67- 
1 69  :  antagonism  between 
them,  193-194  :  objects  of 
prayer,  progress  from 
material  to  spiritual,  173- 
174:  prayer  a  form  of 
communion  with  the  deity, 
174:  Christian  theory  of 
prayer,  227-228 :  survival 
of  spell  in  Christian  liturgy, 
228-230  :  Egyptian  prayer, 
188;  dominated  by  spell, 
224-227  :  English,  earliest 


example  of  spell -prayer, 
194 :  Eleusinian  spell- 
prayer,  194  :  Hellenic 
prayer,  187,  200-205,  207; 
Hellenic  spells,  196;  spell 
prayer,  199-200  ;  theory  of 
prayer  in  Hellenic  phil- 
osophy, 206 :  Iranian  lit- 
urgical magic,  199  ;  prayers 
and  spells  in  Zarathustrian 
ritual,  213-218:  Latin 
prayer,  185  :  Roman  spell - 
prayer,  195 :  Peruvian 
prayer,  183  n.  3  :  savage  ex- 
amples of  real  prayer,  1 82- 
1  83  :  Umbrian  prayer,  186  : 
Vedic  spell-formulae  com- 
bined with  prayer,  208-2 1 3. 
Purification :  primitive  ideas 
concerning  pure  and  im- 
pure substances,  89-91  • 
analysis  of  primitive  sensa- 
tion of  impurity,  9~-98  : 
purification  after  battle,  9-1' ; 
after  funerals,  96 :  logical 
development  of  idea  of 
purity,  98-101  :  psycho- 
logical effect  of  impure 
contact,  102-103:  purity 
connected  with  belief  iii 
spirits,  103-104  ;  dualism 
of  good  and  evil  spirits. 
105:  with  belief  in  gods, 
106:  earliest  concept  non- 
moral,  110-111:  evolution 
of  idea  of  ''pure  heart," 
111-115:  cathartic  sacrifice, 
120-122:  opposition  be- 
tween spiritual  and  ritual- 

16 


234 


Index 


istic  purity,  123 :  Iranian 
ideas,  97,  101,  107,  115, 
127-132  :  Jewish,  124, 126  : 
Hellenic,  132-139;  in- 
fluence on  Hellenic  law, 
140-152  :  influence  of  idea 
of  purity  on  religious 
institutions,  152-l60. 

Rebirth,  mystic  sense  of,  57. 
Resurrection,    belief  in,   60- 

62  :  resurrection  of  divinity, 

68. 

Sacrifice,  64,  120-122. 

Saint- worship,  77. 

Savagery,  survival  of,  in  higher 

religion,  10,  11,  15,  17. 
Scapegoat,   cathartic    use    of, 

119,  120. 
Spell,     examples     of     spell- 


prayer,  169,  170,  175,  180: 
spell-value  of  the  name  in 
lower  and  higher  religions, 
184-192:  use  of  narrative 
as  a  spell-form  of  sugges- 
tion (Navajo  prayer),  181- 
182:  knowledge  of  origin 
of  person  or  substance 
useful  for  spell-purposes, 
19O-I93 :  progress  from 
spell  to  prayer,  171-173. 

Teutonic  religion,  41,  51,  52^ 
55,  57,  78-80:  ideas  of 
purity,  107-109. 

Thiasoi,  48-49. 

Totemism,  13. 

Transference  of  sin,  1 1 6-1 19. 

Trinitarian  ideas,  73-74. 

Virginity,  exaltation  of,  70-7 1 . 


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